Augustus Toplady

As the Lord’s Day approaches, I think this excerpt from the Memoirs of the Rev. Augustus Toplady contains some good thoughts for us to think on.

Sunday, 31 [1768]. . . .
   How sweet is the work of the ministry, when attended with the unction of power of the Holy one! My soul has been very barren, ever since last Lord‘s Day; but this sabbath has been a sabbath indeed.
   Spent the evening both agreeably and profitably, in reading the confession of faith, charge, and sermon, delivered at Bristol last August . . . Blessed be God for the advancement of his interest among us, under whatever form. Lord, increase the number of thy faithful witnesses, every where and in every denomination of Protestants!

—Augustus Toplady, The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987), 12.

May each of us, especially those of you who serve in ministry, have such a Lord’s Day, and pray such a prayer.

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM VII. In Sickness
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

esus, since I with thee am one,    Confirm my soul in thee, And still continue to tread down    The man of sin in me.

Let not the subtle foe prevail
   In this my feeble hour,
Frustrate all the hopes of hell
   Redeem from Satan’s pow’r.

Arm me, O Lord, from head to foot,
   With righteousness divine;
My soul in Jesus firmly root,
   And seal the Saviour mine.

Proportion’d to my pains below,
   O let my joys increase,
And mercy to my spirit flow
   In healing streams of peace.

In life and death be thou my God,
   And I am more than safe:
Chastis’d by thy paternal rod,
   Support me with thy staff.

Lay on me, Saviour, what thou wilt,
   But give me strength to bear:
Thy gracious hand this cross hath dealt,
   Which cannot be severe.

As gold refin’d may I come out,
   In sorrow’s furnace try’d;
Preserved from faithfulness and doubt,
   And fully purify’d.

When, overwhelm’d with sore distress,
   Out of the pit I cry,
On Jesus suffering in my place
   Help me to fix mine eye.

When marr’d with tears, and blood, and sweat,
   The glorious sufferer lay,
And in my stead sustain’d the heat
   And burden of the day.

The pangs which my weak nature knows
   Are swallow’d up in thine:
How numberless thy pondrous woes!
   How few, how light are mine!

O might I learn of thee to bear
   Temptation, pain and loss!
Give me a heart inur’d to prayer,
   And fitted to the cross.

Make me, O Lord, thy patient son;
   Thy language mine shall be:
“Father, thy gracious will be done,
   I take the cup from thee.”

While thus my soul is fixt on him
   Once fasten’d to the wood,
Safe shall I pass through Jordan’s stream,
   And reach the realms of God.

And when my soul mounts up to keep
   With thee the marriage feast,
I shall not die, but fall asleep
   On my Redeemer’s breast.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

salme 95
(Geneva Bible)

1 Come, let vs reioyce vnto the Lord: let vs sing aloude vnto the rocke of our saluation.
2 Let vs come before his face with praise: let vs sing loude vnto him with Psalmes.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King aboue all gods.
4 In whose hande are the deepe places of the earth, and the heightes of the mountaines are his:
5 To whome the Sea belongeth: for hee made it, and his handes formed the dry land.
6 Come, let vs worship and fall downe, and kneele before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheepe of his hande: to day, if ye will heare his voyce,
8 Harden not your heart, as in Meribah, and as in the day of Massah in the wildernesse.
9 Where your fathers tempted me, proued me, though they had seene my worke.
10 Fourtie yeeres haue I contended with this generation, and said, They are a people that erre in heart, for they haue not knowen my wayes.
11 Wherefore I sware in my wrath, saying, Surely they shall not enter into my rest.

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM VIII. John xiv. 17. He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Savior, I thy word believe,
   My unbelief remove;
Now thy quick’ning Spirit give,
   The unction from above;
Shew me, Lord, how good thou art,
   My soul with all thy fulness fill:
Send the witness in my heart
   The Holy Ghost reveal.

Dead in sin ’till then I lie,
   Bereft of power to rise;
Till thy Spirit inwardly
   Thy saving blood applies:
Now the mighty gift impart,
   My sin erase, my pardon seal:
Send the witness, in my heart
   The Holy Ghost reveal.

Blessed Comforter, come down,
   And live and move in me;
Make my every deed thy own,
   In all things led by thee:
Bid my every lust depart,
   And with me O vouchsafe to dwell;
Faithful witness, in my heart
   Thy perfect light reveal.

Let me in thy love rejoice,
   Thy shrine, thy pure abode;
Tell me, by thine inward voice,
   That I’m a child of God:
Lord, I choose the better part,
   Jesus, I wait thy peace to feel;
Send the witness in my heart
   The Holy Ghost reveal.

Whom the world cannot receive,
   O manifest in me:
Son of God, I cease to live,
   Unless I live in thee
Now impute thy whole desert,
   Restore the joy from which I fell:
Breathe the witness, in my heart
   The Holy Ghost reveal.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 137
(Geneva Bible)

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM IX. On War
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Great God, whom heav’n, and earth, and sea
With all their countless hosts, obey,
Upheld by whom the nations stand,
And empires fall at thy command:

Beneath thy long suspended ire
Let papal Antichrist expire;
Thy knowledge spread from sea to sea,
’Till every nation bows to thee.

Then shew thyself the prince of peace,
Make every hostile efforts cease:
All with thy sacred love inspire,
And burn their chariots in the fire.

In sunder break each warlike spear;
Let all the Saviour’s liv’ry wear;
The universal Sabbath prove,
The utmost rest of Christian love!

The world shall then no discord know,
But hand in hand to Canaan go,
Jesus, the peaceful king, adore,
And learn the art of war no more.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 150
(Geneva Bible)

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM X. Desiring to be given up to God
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

O that my heart was right with thee,
And lov’d thee with a perfect love!
O that my Lord would dwell in me,
And never from his seat remove!
Jesus, remove th’ impending load,
And set my soul on fire for God!

Thou seest I dwell in awful night
Until thou in my heart appear;
Kindle the flame, O Lord, and light
Thine everlasting candle there:
Thy presence puts the shadows by;
If thou art gone, how dark am I!

Ah! Lord, how should thy servant see,
Unless thou give me seeing eyes?
Well may I fall, if out of thee;
If out of thee, how should I rise?
I wander, Lord, without thy aid,
And lose my way in midnight’s shade.

Thy bright, unerring light afford,
A light that gives the sinner hope;
And from the house of bondage, Lord,
O bring the weary captive up,
Thine hand alone can set me free
And reach my pardon out to me.

O let my prayer acceptance find,
And bring the mighty blessing down;
With eye-salve, Lord, anoint the blind,
And seal me thine adopted son:
A fallen, helpless creature take,
And heir of thy salvation make.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 42 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth. A Psalme to give instruction, committed to the sonnes of Korah.

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XI. Matt. viii. 25. Lord, save us, we perish.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Pilot of the soul, awake,
Save us for thy mercies’ sake;
Now rebuke the angry deep,
Save, O save thy sinking ship!

Stand at the helm, our vessel steer,
Mighty on our side appear
Saviour, teach us to descry
Where the rocks and quicksands lie.

The waves shall impotently roll,
If thou ’rt the anchor of the soul:
At thy word the wind shall cease,
Storms be hush’d to perfect peace.

Be thou our haven of retreat,
A rock to fix our wav’ring feet,
Teach us to own thy sovereign sway,
Whom the winds and seas obey.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 84 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth upon Gittith.
A Psalme committed to the sonnes of Korah.

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XII. O that my ways were made so direct, &c.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

O that my ways were made so strait,
   And that the lamp of faith
Would, as a star, direct my feet
   Within the narrow path!

O that thy strength might enter now,
   And in my heart abide,
To make me as a faithful bow
   That never starts aside!

O that I all to Christ were given,
   (From sin and earth set free)
Who kindly laid aside his heaven,
   And gave himself for me!

Not more the panting hart desires
   The cool, refreshing stream
Than my dry, thirsty soul aspires
   At being one with him.

Set up thine image in my heart;
   Thy temple let us be,
Bid every idol now depart
   That fain would rival thee.

Still keep me In the heavenly path
   Bestow the inward light;
And lead me by the hand till faith
   Is ripened into sight.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 119:33–40
(Geneva Bible)
He.

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XIII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Father, to thee In Christ I fly,
What tho’ my sins of crimson dye
   For thy resentment call?
My crimes he did on Calv’ry bear,
The blood that flow’d for sinners there
   Shall cleanse me from them all.

Spirit divine, thy pow’r bring in,
O raise me from this depth of sin,
   Take off my guilty load:
Now let me live through Jesu’s death,
And being justified by faith,
   May I have peace with God!

Foul as I am, deserving hell,
Thou cans’t not from thy throne repel
   A soul that leans on God:
My sins at thy command shall be
Cast as a stone into the sea—
   The sea of Jesu’s blood.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 119:81–88
(Geneva Bible)
Caph.
81 My soule fainteth for thy saluation: yet I waite for thy worde.
82 Mine eyes faile for thy promise, saying, when wilt thou comfort me?
83 For I am like a bottell in the smoke: yet doe I not forget thy statutes.
84 Howe many are the dayes of thy seruant? When wilt thou execute iudgement on them that persecute me?
85 The proude haue digged pittes for mee, which is not after thy Lawe.
86 All thy commandements are true: they persecute me falsely: helpe me.
87 They had almost consumed me vpon the earth: but I forsooke not thy precepts.
88 Quicken me according to thy louing kindnes: so shall I keepe the testimony of thy mouth.

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

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

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XIV.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

SUPREME High Priest, the pilgrim’s light,
   My heart for thee prepare,
Thine image stamp, and deeply write
   Thy superscription there.

Ah! let my forehead bear thy seal,
   My arm thy badge retain,
My heart the inward witness feel
   That I am born again!

Thy peace, O Saviour, shed abroad,
   That every want supplies:
Then from its guilt my soul renew’d,
   Shall, phœnix like, arise.

Into thy humble mansion come.
   Set up thy dwelling here:
Possess my heart, and leave no room
   For sin to harbour there.

Ah! give me, Lord, the single eye,
   Which aims at nought but thee:
I fain would live, and yet not I—
   Let Jesus live in me.

Like Noah’s dove, no rest I find
   But in thy ark of peace;
Thy cross the balance of my mind,
   Thy wounds my hiding-place.

In vain the tempter spreads the snare,
   If thou my keeper art:
Get thee behind me, God is near,
   My Saviour takes my part!

On him my spirit I recline,
   Who put my nature on;
His light shall in my darkness shine,
   And guide me to his throne.

O that the penetrating sight,
   And eagle’s eye were mine
Undazzled at the boundless light
   I’d see his glory shine!

Ev’n now , by faith, I see him live
   To crown the conquering few;
Nor let me linger here, but strive
   To gain the prize in view.

Add, Saviour, to the eagle’s eye,
   The clove’s aspiring wing,
To bear me upwards to the sky,
   Thy praises there to sing!

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Psalme 119:129–136
(Geneva Bible)
Pe.
129 Thy testimonies are wonderfull: therefore doeth my soule keepe them.
130 The entrance into thy wordes sheweth light, and giueth vnderstanding to the simple.
131 I opened my mouth and panted, because I loued thy commandements.
132 Looke vpon mee and bee mercifull vnto me, as thou vsest to doe vnto those that loue thy Name.
133 Direct my steppes in thy worde, and let none iniquitie haue dominion ouer me.
134 Deliuer mee from the oppression of men, and I will keepe thy precepts.
135 Shew the light of thy countenance vpon thy seruant, and teache me thy statutes.
136 Mine eyes gush out with riuers of water, because they keepe not thy Lawe.

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

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XV. Self Dedication.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Jesus, my Saviour, fill my heart
   With nothing else but thee;
Now thy saving pow’r exert,
   And more than conquer me:
Each intruding rival kill,
   That Minders or obstructs thy reign:
All thy glorious might reveal,
   And make me pure within.

Through my soul in mercy shine,
   Thine Holy Spirit give;
Let him witness, Lord, with mine
   That I in Jesus live;
Set me free from Satan’s load,
   The gift of Liberty dispense,
In my heart O shed abroad
   Thy quick’ning influence.

Let the gifts bestow’d on me,
   Live to thy praise alone;
Lord, the talents lent by thee
   Are thine and not my own:
May I in thy service spend
   All the graces thou has given,
Taken up, when time shall end,
   To live and reign in heaven.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

Having finished the Psalms from the Geneva Bible, I am now going to begin the Gospel of John. I’ll be using the NASB, and including commentary from J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.

The Gospel According to John

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Gospel of John, which begins with these verses, is in many respects very unlike the other three Gospels. It contains many things which they omit. It omits many things which they contain. Good reason might easily be shown for this unlikeness. But it is enough to remember that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote under the direct inspiration of God. In the general plan of their respective Gospels, and in the particular details,—in everything that they record, and in everything that they do not record,—they were all four equally and entirely guided by the Holy Spirit.
   About the matters which John was specially inspired to relate in his Gospel, one general remark will suffice. The things which are peculiar to his Gospel are among the most precious possessions of the Church of Christ. No one of the four Gospel-writers has given us such full statements about the divinity of Christ,—about justification by faith,—about the offices of Christ,—about the work of the Holy Ghost,—and about the privileges of believers, as we read in the pages of St. John. On none of these great subjects, undoubtedly, have Matthew, Mark, and Luke been silent. But in St. John’s Gospel, they stand out prominently on the surface, so that he who runs may read.
   The five verses now before us contain a statement of matchless sublimity concerning the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is, beyond all question, whom St. John means, when he speaks of “the Word.” No doubt there are heights and depths in that statement which are far beyond man’s understanding. And yet there are plain lessons in it, which every Christian would do well to treasure up in his mind.
   We learn, firstly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. St. John tells as that “in the beginning was the Word.” He did not begin to exist when the heavens and the earth were made. Much less did He begin to exist when the Gospel was brought into the world. He had glory with the Father “before the world was.” (John xvii. 5.) He was existing when matter was first created, and before time began. He was “before all things.” (Col. i. 17.) He was from all eternity.
   We learn, secondly, that our Lord Jesus Christ is a Person distinct from God the Father, and yet one with Him. St. John tells us that “the Word was with God.” The Father and the Word, though two persons, are joined by an ineffable union. Where God the Father was from all eternity, there also was the Word, even God the Son,—their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal, and yet their Godhead one This is a great mystery! Happy is he who can receive it as a little child, without attempting to explain it.
   We learn, thirdly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is very God. St. John tells us that “the Word was God.” He is not merely a created angel, or a being inferior to God the Father, and invested by Him with power to redeem sinners. He is nothing less than perfect God,—equal to the father as touching His Godhead,—God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds.
   We learn, fourthly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things. St. John tells us that “by Him were all things made, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” So far from being a creature of God, as some heretics have falsely asserted, He is the Being who made the worlds and all that they contain. “He commanded and they were created.” (Psalm xl. 8.)
   We learn, lastly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all spiritual life and light. St. John tells us, that “in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” He is the eternal fountain, from which alone the sons of men have ever derived life. Whatever spiritual life and light Adam and Eve possessed before the fall, was from Christ. Whatever deliverance from sin and spiritual death any child of Adam has ever enjoyed since the fall, whatever light of conscience or understanding any one has obtained, all has flowed from Christ. The vast majority of mankind in every age have refused to know Him, have forgotten the fall, and their own need of a Savior. The light has been constantly shining "in darkness." The most have "not comprehended the light." But if any men and women out of the countless millions of mankind have ever had spiritual life and light, they have owed all to Christ.
   Such is a brief summary of the leading lessons which these wonderful verses appear to contain. There is much in them, without controversy, which is above our reason but there is nothing contrary to it. There is much that we cannot explain, and must be content humbly to believe. Let us however never forget that there are plain practical consequences flowing from the passage, which we can never grasp to firmly, or know too well.
   Would we know, for one thing, the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John’s Gospel. Let us mark what kind of Being the Redeemer of mankind must needs be, in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners. If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. The right measure of sin’s sinfulness is the dignity of Him who came into the world to save sinners. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful!
   Would we know, for another thing, the strength of a true Christian’s foundation for hope? Let us often read these first five verses of St. John’s Gospel. Let us mark that the Saviour in whom the believer is bid to trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him. He that was “with God,” and “was God,” is also “Emmanuel, God with us.” Let us thank God that our help is laid on One that is mighty. (Psalm lxxxix. 19.) In ourselves we are great sinners. But in Jesus Christ we have a great Saviour. He is a strong foundation-stone, able to bear the weight of a world’s sin. He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. (1 Peter ii. 6.)

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:1–4

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XVII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

O may I never rest
   Till I find rest in thee;
’Till of my pardon here possess’d
   I feel thy love to me!
Unseal my darken’d eyes,
   My fetter’d feet unbind,
The lame shall, when thou say’st “Arise,”
   Run swifter than the hind.

O draw the alien near,
   Bend the obdurate neck,
O melt the flint into a tear,
   And teach the dumb to speak:
Turn not thy face away.
   Thy look can make me clean;
Me in thy wedding robe array,
   And cover all my sin.

Tell me, my God, for whom
   Thy precious blood was shed;
For sinners! Lord, as such I come,
   For such the Saviour bled:
Then raise a fallen wretch,
   Display thy grace in me!
I am not out of mercy’s reach,
   Nor too far gone for thee.

Thou quickly wilt forgive,
   My Lord will not delay;
Jesus, to thee the time I leave,
   And wait the accepted day:
I now rejoice in hope
   That I shall be made clean:
Thy grace shall surely lift me up
   Above the reach of sin.

Hast thou not died for me,
   And call’d me from below!
O help me to lay hold on thee,
   And ne’er to let ,thee go!
Though on the billows toss’d,
   My Saviour I’ll pursue:
Awhile submit to bear his cross,
   Then share his glory too.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 1:35–42
Andrew and Peter follow Christ

These verses ought always to be interesting to every true Christian. They describe the first beginnings of the Christian Church. Vast as that church is now, there was a time when it consisted of only two weak members. The calling of those two members is described in the passage which is now before our eyes.
   We see, for one thing, in these verses, what good is done by continually testifying of Christ.
   The first time that John the Baptist cried, “Behold the Lamb of God,” no result appears to have followed. We are not told of any who heard, inquired, and believed. But when he repeated the same words the next day, we read that two of his disciples “heard him speak and followed Jesus.” They were received most graciously by Him whom they followed. “They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day.” Truly it was a day in their lives most eventful, and most blessed! From that day they became fast and firm disciples of the new-found Messiah. They took up the cross. They continued with Him in His temptations. They followed Him wherever He went. One of them at least, if not both, became a chosen apostle, and a master builder in the Christian temple. And all was owing to John the Baptist’s testimony, “Behold the lamb of God.” That testimony was a little seed. But it bore mighty fruits.
   This simple story is a pattern of the way in which good has been done to souls in every age of the Christian Church. By such testimony as that before us, and by none else, men and women are converted and saved. It is by exalting Christ, not the church,—Christ, not the sacraments,—Christ, not the ministry,—it is by this means that hearts are moved, and sinners are turned to God. To the world such testimony may seem weakness and foolishness. Yet, like the ram’s horns, before whose blast the walls of Jericho fell down, this testimony is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. The story of the crucified Lamb of God has proved in every age, the power of God unto salvation. Those who have done most for Christ’s cause in every part of the world, have been men like John the Baptist. They have not cried, Behold me, or Behold the church, or Behold the ordinances, but “Behold the Lamb.” If souls are to be saved, men must be pointed directly to Christ.
   One thing, however, must never be forgotten. There must be patient continuance in preaching and teaching the truth, if we want good to be done. Christ must be set forth again and again, as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The story of grace must be told repeatedly,—line upon line, and precept upon precept. It is the constant dropping which wears away the stone. The promise shall never be broken, that “God’s word shall not return unto him void.” (Isaiah lv. 11.) But it is nowhere said that it shall do good the very first time that it is preached. It was not the first proclamation of John the Baptist, but the second, which made Andrew and his companion follow Jesus.
   We see, for another thing, what good a believer may do to others, by speaking to them about Christ.
   No sooner does Andrew become a disciple, than he tells his brother Simon what a discovery he has made. Like one who has unexpectedly heard good tidings, he hastens to impart it to the one nearest and dearest to him. He says to his brother, “We have found the Messias,” and he “brings him to Jesus.” Who can tell what might have happened if Andrew had been of a silent, reserved, and uncommunicative spirit, like many a Christian in the present day? Who can tell but his brother might have lived and died a fisherman on the Galilean lake? But happily for Simon, Andrew was not a man of this sort. He was one whose heart was so full that he must speak.
   And to Andrew’s out-spoken testimony, under God, the great apostle Peter owed the first beginning of light in his soul.
   The fact before us is most striking and instructive. Out of the three first members of the Christian Church, one at least was brought to Jesus, by the private, quiet word of a relative. He seems to have heard no public preaching. He saw no mighty miracle wrought. He was not convinced by any powerful reasoning. He only heard his brother telling him that he had found a Saviour himself, and at once the work began in his soul. The simple testimony of a warm-hearted brother was the first link in the chain by which Peter was drawn out of the world, and joined to Christ. The first blow in that mighty work by which Peter was made a pillar of the Church, was struck by Andrew’s words, “We have found the Christ.”
   Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if all believers were more like Andrew! Well would it be for souls if all men and women who have been converted themselves, would speak to their friends and relatives on spiritual subjects, and tell them what they have found! How much good might be done! How many might be led to Jesus, who now live and die in unbelief! The work of testifying the Gospel of the grace of God ought not to be left to ministers alone. All who have received mercy ought to find a tongue, and to declare what God has done for their souls. All who have been delivered from the power of the devil, ought to “go home and tell their friends what great things God has done for them.” (Mark v. 19.) Thousands, humanly speaking, would listen to a word from a friend, who will not listen to a sermon. Every believer ought to be a home-missionary, a missionary to his family, children, servants, neighbors, and friends. Surely, if we can find nothing to say to others about Jesus, we may well doubt whether we are savingly acquainted with Him ourselves.
   Let us take heed that we are among those who really follow Christ, and abide with Him. It is not enough to hear Him preached from the pulpit, and to read of Him as described in books. We must actually follow Him, pour out our hearts before Him, and hold personal communion with Him. Then, and not until then, we shall feel constrained to speak of Him to others. The man who only knows Christ by the hearing of the ear, will never do much for the spread of Christ’s cause in the earth.

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:68–70.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XVIII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

From Justice’s consuming flame,
   Saviour, I fly to thee;
O look not on me as I am,
   But as I fain would be.

Deserted in the way I lie,
   No cure for me is found:
Thou, good Samaritan, pass by,
   And bind up every wound.

O may I in the final day
   At thy right-hand appear!
Take thou my sins out of the way,
   Who didst the burden bear.

What though the fiery serpent’s bite
   Hath poisoned ev’ry vein—
I’ll not despair, but keep in sight
   The wounds of Jesus slain.

My soul thou wilt from death retrieve,
   For sorrow grant me joy,
Thy power is mightier to save
   Than Satan’s to destroy.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 3:22–36
John the Baptist Witnesses Concerning Christ

On one account, this passage deserves the special attention of all devout readers of the Bible. It contains the last testimony of John the Baptist concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. That faithful man of God was the same at the end of his ministry that he was at the beginning—the same in his views of self,—the same in his views of Christ. Happy is that church whose ministers are as steady, bold, and constant to one thing, as John the Baptist!
   We have, firstly, in these verses, a humbling example of the petty jealousies and party-spirit which may exist among professors of religion. We are told, that the disciples of John the Baptist were offended, because the ministry of Jesus began to attract more attention than that of their master. “They came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.”
   The spirit exhibited in this complaint, is unhappily too common in the Churches of Christ. The succession of these complainers has never failed. There are never lacking religions professors who care far more for the increase of their own party, than for the increase of true Christianity; and who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion, if it spreads anywhere except within their own denomination. There is a generation which can see no good being done, except in the ranks of its own congregations; and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven, if they will not enter therein under their banner.
   The true Christian must watch and pray against the spirit here manifested by John’s disciples. It is very insidious, very contagious, and very injurious to the cause of religion. Nothing so defiles Christianity and gives the enemies of truth such occasion to blaspheme, as jealousy and party-spirit among Christians. Wherever there is real grace, we should be ready and willing to acknowledge it, even though it may be outside our own pale. We should strive to say with the apostle, “If Christ be preached, I rejoice, yea! and will rejoice.” (Phil. i. 18.) If good is done, we ought to be thankful, though it even may not be done in what we think the best way. If souls are saved, we ought to be glad, whatever be the means that God may think fit to employ.
   We have, secondly, in these verses, a splendid pattern of true and godly humility. We see in John the Baptist a very different spirit from that displayed by his disciples. He begins by laying down the great principle, that acceptance with man is a special gift of God; and that we must therefore not presume to find fault, when others have more acceptance than ourselves. “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.” He goes on to remind his followers of his repeated declaration, that one greater than himself was coming;— “I said, I am not the Christ.” He tells those who his office compared to that of Christ, is that of the bridegroom’s friend, compared to the bridegroom. And finally, he solemnly affirms, that Christ must and will become greater and greater, and that he himself must become less and less important, until, like a star eclipsed by the rising sun, he has completely disappeared.
   A frame of mind like this, is the highest degree of grace to which mortal man can attain. The greatest saint in the sight of God, is the man who is most thoroughly “clothed with humility.” (1 Peter v. 5.) Would we know the prime secret of being men of the stamp of Abraham, and Moses, and Job, and David, and Daniel, and St. Paul, and John the Baptist? They were all eminently humble men. Living at different ages, and enjoying very different degrees of light, in this matter at least they were all agreed. In themselves they saw nothing but sin and weakness. To God they gave all the praise of what they were. Let us walk in their steps. Let us covet earnestly the best gifts; but above all, let us covet humility. The way to true honour is to be humble. No man ever was so praised by Christ, as the very man who says here, “I must decrease,” the humble John the Baptist.
   We have, thirdly, in these verses, an instructive declaration of Christ’s honour and dignity. John the Baptist teaches his disciples once more, the true greatness of the Person whose growing popularity offended them. Once more, and perhaps for the last time, he proclaims Him as one worthy of all honour and praise. He uses one striking expression after another, to convey a correct idea of the majesty of Christ. He speaks of Him as “the bridegroom” of the Church,—as “him that comes from above,”—as “him whom God has sent,”—as “him to whom the Spirit is given without measure,”—as Him “whom the Father loves,” and into “whose hands all things are given,”—to believe in whom is life everlasting, and to reject whom is eternal ruin. Each of these phrases is full of deep meaning, and would supply matter for a long sermon. All show the depth and height of John’s spiritual attainments. More honourable things are nowhere written concerning Jesus, than these verses recorded as spoken by John the Baptist.
   Let us endeavor in life and death, to hold the same views of the Lord Jesus, to which John here gives expression. We can never make too much of Christ. Our thoughts about the Church, the ministry, and the sacraments, may easily become too high and extravagant. We can never have too high thoughts about Christ, can never love Him too much, trust Him too implicitly, lay too much weight upon Him, and speak too highly in His praise. He is worthy of all the honour that we can give Him. He will be all in heaven. Let us see to it, that He is all in our hearts on earth.
   We have, lastly, in these verses, a broad assertion of the nearness and presentness of the salvation of true Christians. John the Baptist declares, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” He is not intended to look forward with a sick heart to a far distant privilege. He “hath” everlasting life as soon as he believes. Pardon, peace, and a complete title to Heaven, are an immediate possession. They become a believer’s own, from the very moment he puts faith in Christ. They will not be more completely his own, if he lives to the age of Methuselah.
   The truth before us, is one of the most glorious privileges of the Gospel. There are no works to be done, no conditions to be fulfilled, no price to be paid, no wearing years of probation to be passed, before a sinner can be accepted with God. Let him only believe on Christ, and he is at once forgiven. Salvation is close to the chief of sinners. Let him only repent and believe, and this day it is his own. By Christ all that believe are at once justified from all things.
   Let us leave the whole passage with one grave and heart-searching thought. If faith in Christ brings with it present and immediate privileges, to remain unbelieving is to be in a state of tremendous peril. If heaven is very near to the believer, hell must be very near to the unbeliever. The greater the mercy that the Lord Jesus offers, the greater will be the guilt of those who neglect and reject it. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:169–173.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

PETITIONARY HYMNS
POEM XIX. After being surprised into Sin.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Ah! Give me, Lord, myself to see,
   Against myself to watch and pray,
How weak am I, when left by thee,
   How frail, how apt to fall away!
If but a moment thou withdraw,
That moment sees me break thy law.

Jesus, the sinner’s only trust,
   Let me now feel thy grace infus’d!
Ah! raise a captive from the dust,
   Nor break a reed already bruis’d!
Visit me, Lord, in peace again,
Nor let me seek thy face in vain.

O gracious Lord, now let me find
   Peace and salvation in thy name;
Be thou the eye-sight of the blind,
   The staff and ancles of the lame;
My lifter up whene’er I fall,
My strength, my portion, and my all.

Let thy meek mind descend on me,
   Thy Holy Spirit from above:
Assist me, Lord, to follow thee,
   Drawn by th’ endearing cords of love
Made perfect by thy cleansing blood,
Completely sav’d and born of God.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

The Gospel According to John

Christ Heals the Paralytic Man

5 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
   2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]* 5 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” 9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

Christ Heals on the Sabbath

We have in this passage one of the few miracles of Christ, which St. John records. Like every other miracle in this Gospel, it is described with great minuteness and particularity. And like more than one other miracle it leads on to a discourse full of singularly deep instruction.
   We are taught, for one thing, in this passage, what misery sin has brought into the world. We read of a man who had been ill for no less than thirty-eight years! For eight-and-thirty weary summers and winters he had endured pain and infirmity. He had seen others healed at the waters of Bethesda, and going to their homes rejoicing. But for him there had been no healing. Friendless, helpless, and hopeless, he lay near the wonder-working waters, but derived no benefit from them. Year after year passed away, and left him still uncured. No relief or change for the better seemed likely to come, except from the grave.
   When we read of cases of sickness like this, we should remember how deeply we ought to hate sin! Sin was the original root, and cause, and fountain of every disease in the world. God did not create man to be full of aches, and pains, and infirmities. These things are the fruits of the Fall. There would have been no sickness, if there had been no sin.
   No greater proof can be shown of man’s inbred unbelief, than his carelessness about sin. “Fools,” says the wise man, “make a mock at sin.” (Pro. xiv. 9.) Thousands delight in things which are explicitly evil, and run greedily after that which is downright poison. They love that which God abhors, and dislike that which God loves. They are like the madman, who loves his enemies and hates his friends. Their eyes are blinded. Surely if men would only look at hospitals and infirmaries, and think what havoc sin has made on this earth, they would never take pleasure in sin as they do.
   Well may we be told to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom! Well may we be told to long for the second advent of Jesus Christ! Then, and not until then, shall there be no more curse on the earth, no more suffering, no more sorrow, and no more sin. Tears shall be wiped from the faces of all who love Christ’s appearing, when their Master returns. Weakness and infirmity shall all pass away. Hope deferred shall no longer make hearts sick. There will be no chronic invalids and incurable cases, when Christ has renewed this earth.
   We are taught, for another thing, in this passage, how great is the mercy and compassion of Christ. He “saw” the poor sufferer lying in the crowd. Neglected, overlooked, and forgotten in the great multitude, he was observed by the all-seeing eye of Christ. “He knew” full well, by His Divine knowledge, how long he had been “in that case,” and pitied him. He spoke to him unexpectedly, with words of gracious sympathy. He healed him by miraculous power, at once and without tedious delay, and sent him home rejoicing.
   This is just one among many examples of our Lord Jesus Christ’s kindness and compassion. He is full of undeserved, unexpected, abounding love towards man. “He delighteth in mercy.” (Micah vii. 18.) He is far more ready to save than man is to be saved, far more willing to do good than man is to receive it.
   No one ever need be afraid of beginning the life of a true Christian, if he feels disposed to begin. Let him not hang back and delay, under the vain idea that Christ is not willing to receive him. Let him come boldly, and trust confidently. He who healed the cripple at Bethesda is still the same.
   We are taught, lastly, the lesson that recovery from sickness ought to impress upon us. That lesson is contained in the solemn words which our Saviour addressed to the man He had cured: “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”
   Every sickness and sorrow is the voice of God speaking to us. Each has its peculiar message. Happy are they who have an eye to see God’s hand, and an ear to hear His voice, in all that happens to them. Nothing in this world happens by chance.
   And as it is with sickness, so it is with recovery. Renewed health should send us back to our post in the world with a deeper hatred of sin, a more thorough watchfulness over our own ways, and a more constant purpose of mind to live for God. Far too often the excitement and novelty of returning health tempt us to forget the vows and intentions of the sick-room. There are spiritual dangers attending a recovery! Well would it be for us all after illness to grave these words on our hearts, “Let me sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto me.”
   Let us leave the passage with grateful hearts, and bless God that we have such a Gospel and such a Saviour as the Bible reveals.—Are we ever sick and ill? Let us remember that Christ sees, and knows, and can heal as He thinks fit.—Are we ever in trouble? Let us hear in our trouble the voice of God, and learn to hate sin more.

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:265–268.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

*See Bill Mounce, Where Did v 4 Go in John 5?

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem  XX. Christ the Light of his People.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

I Lift my heart and eyes to thee,
   Jesus, thou unextinguished light:
My lantern, guide, and leader be,
   My cloud by day, my fire by night.

Glory of Israel, shine within,
   Unshadow’d, uneclips’d appear;
O let thy beams dispel my sin,
   Direct me by a friendly star.

   The world a maze and lab’rinth is,
Be thou my thread and faithful clue;
   Thy kingdom and thy righteousness
The only objects I pursue.
   
Light of the Gentiles, thee I hail!
   Essential light, thyself impart!
Spirit of light, his face reveal;
   And set thy signet on my heart.

Thy office is to enlighten man,
   And point him to the heavenly prize;
The hidden things of God t’ explain,
   And chase the darkness from our eyes.

   Shew me I have the better part,
The treasure hid with Christ in God;
   Give me a perfect peace of heart,
And pardon through my Saviour’s blood.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 6:15–21

Christ Walks on the Water
Mt 14:22–23; Mk6:45–52

So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.    16 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17 and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. 19 Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

We should notice, in these verses, our Lord Jesus Christ’s humility. We are told that, after feeding the multitude, He “perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king.” At once He departed, and left them. He wanted no such honours as these. He had come, “not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt. xx. 28.)
   We see the same spirit and frame of mind all through our Lord’s earthly ministry. From His cradle to His grave He was “clothed with humility.” (1 Pet. v. 5.) He was born of a poor woman, and spent the first thirty years of His life in a carpenter’s house at Nazareth. He was followed by poor companions,—many of them no better than fishermen. He was poor in his manner of living: “The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air their nests,—but the Son of man had not where to lay his head” (Matt. viii. 20.) When He went on the Sea of Galilee, it was in a borrowed boat. When He rode into Jerusalem, it was on a borrowed ass. When He was buried, it was in a borrowed tomb. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor.” (2 Cor. viii. 9.)
   The example is one which ought to be far more remembered than it is. How common are pride, and ambition, and high-mindedness! How rare are humility and lowly-mindedness! How few ever refuse greatness when offered to them! How many are continually seeking great things for themselves, and forgetting the injunction—“Seek them not!” (Jer. xlv. 5.) Surely it was not for nothing that our Lord, after washing the disciples’ feet, said,—“I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done.” (John xiii. 15.) There is little, it may be feared, of that feet-washing spirit among Christians. But whether men will hear or forbear, humility is the queen of the graces. “Tell me,” it has been said, “how much humility a man has, and I will tell you how much religion he has.” Humility is the first step toward heaven, and the true way to honour. “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke xviii. 14.)
   We should notice, secondly, in these verses, the trials through which Christ’s disciples had to pass. We are told that they were sent over the lake by themselves, while their Master tarried behind. And then we see them alone in a dark night, tossed about by a great wind on stormy waters, and, worst of all, Christ not with them. It was a strange transition. From witnessing a mighty miracle, and helping it instrumentally, amid an admiring crowd, to solitude, darkness, winds, waves, storm, anxiety, and danger, the change was very great! But Christ knew it, and Christ appointed it, and it was working for their good.
   Trial, we must distinctly understand, is part of the diet which all true Christians must expect. It is one of the means by which their grace is proved, and by which they find out what there is in themselves. Winter as well as summer,—cold as well as heat,—clouds as well as sunshine,—are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favourable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it may not be. It is not in this way that God’s children are made “partakers of His holiness.” (Heb. xii. 10.) Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us be content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be left,—but we are never really alone.
   Let us notice, in the last place, our Lord Jesus Christ’s power over the waves of the sea. He came to His disciples as they were rowing on the stormy lake, “walking on” the waters. He walked on them as easily as we walk on dry land. They bore Him as firmly as the pavement of the Temple, or the hills around Nazareth. That which is contrary to all natural reason was perfectly possible to Christ.
   The Lord Jesus, we must remember, is not only the Lord, but the Maker of all creation. “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John i. 3.) It was just as easy for Him to walk on the sea as to form the sea at the beginning,—just as easy to suspend the common laws of nature, as they are called, as to impose those laws at the first. Learned men talk solemn nonsense sometimes about the eternal fixity of the “laws of nature,” as if they were above God Himself, and could never be suspended. It is well to be reminded sometimes by such miracles as that before us, that these so-called “laws of nature” are neither immutable nor eternal. They had a beginning, and will one day have an end.
   Let all true Christians take comfort in the thought that their Saviour is Lord of waves and winds, of storms and tempests, and can come to them in the darkest hour, “walking upon the sea.” There are waves of trouble far heavier than any on the Lake of Galilee. There are days of darkness which test the faith of the holiest Christian. But let us never despair if Christ is our Friend. He can come to our aid in an hour when we do not think, and in ways that we did not expect. And when He comes, all will be calm.  

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)], 3:334–337.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXI.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Chain’d to the world, to sin ty’d down,
   In darkness still I lie;
Lord, break my bonds, Lord give me wings,
   And teach me how to fly.

Instruct my feeble hands to war,
   In me thy strength reveal,
To put my ev’ry lust to death,
   And fight thy battles well.

Rend ev’ry veil that shades thy face,
   Put on thine helmet, Lord;
My sin shall fall, my guilt expire,
   Beneath thy conqu’ring sword.

Thou art the mighty God of hosts,
   Whose counsels never fail;
Be thou my glorious chief, and then
   I cannot but prevail.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 6:60–65

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

We learn from these verses that some of Christ’s sayings seem hard to flesh and blood. We are told that “many” who had followed our Lord for a season, were offended when He spoke of “eating his flesh and drinking his blood.” They murmured and said, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”
   Murmurs and complaints of this kind are very common. It must never surprise us to hear them. They have been, they are, they will be as long as the world stands. To some Christ’s sayings appear hard to understand. To others, as in the present case, they appear hard to believe, and harder still to obey. It is just one of the many ways in which the natural corruption of man shows itself. So long as the heart is naturally proud, worldly, unbelieving, and fond of self-indulgence, if not of sin, so long there will never be lacking people who will say of Christian doctrines and precepts, “These are hard sayings; who can hear them?”
   Humility is the frame of mind which we should labour and pray for, if we would not be offended by scriptural teaching. If we find any of Christ’s sayings hard to understand, we should humbly remember our present ignorance, and believe that we shall know more by and bye. If we find any of His sayings difficult to obey, we should humbly recollect that He will never require of us impossibilities, and that what He bids us do, He will give us grace to perform.
   We learn, secondly, from these verses, that we must beware of putting a carnal meaning on spiritual words. We read that our Lord said to the murmuring Jews who stumbled at the idea of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”
   It is useless to deny that this verse is full of difficulties. It contains expressions “hard to be understood.” It is far more easy to have a general impression of the meaning of the whole sentence, than to explain it word by word. Some things nevertheless we can see clearly and grasp firmly. Let us consider what they are.
   Our Lord says, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” By this He means that it is the Holy Ghost who is the special author of spiritual life in man’s soul. By His agency it is first imparted, and afterwards sustained and kept up. If the Jews thought He meant that man could have spiritual life by bodily eating or drinking, they were greatly mistaken.
   Our Lord says, “The flesh profiteth nothing.” By this He means that neither His flesh nor any other flesh, literally eaten, can do good to the soul. Spiritual benefit is not to be had through the mouth, but through the heart. The soul is not a material thing, and cannot therefore be nourished by material food.
   Our Lord says, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” By this He signifies that His words and teachings, applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, are the true means of producing spiritual influence and conveying spiritual life. By words thoughts are begotten and aroused. By words mind and conscience are stirred. And Christ’s words especially are spirit-stirring and life-giving.
   The principle contained in this verse, however faintly we may grasp its full meaning, deserves peculiar attention in these times. There is a tendency in many minds to attach an excessive importance to the outward and visible or “doing” part of religion. They seem to think that the sum and substance of Christianity consists in Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, in public ceremonies and forms, in appeals to the eye and ear and bodily excitement. Surely they forget that it is “the Spirit that quickeneth,” and that the “flesh profiteth nothing.” It is not so much by noisy public demonstrations, as by the still quiet work of the Holy Spirit on hearts that God’s cause prospers. It is Christ’s words entering into consciences, which “are spirit and life.”
   We learn, lastly, from these verses, that Christ has a perfect knowledge of the hearts of men. We read that “He knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.”
   Sentences like this are found so frequently in the Gospels that we are apt to underrate their importance. Yet there are few truths which we shall find it so good for our souls to remember as that which is contained in the sentence before us. The Saviour with whom we have to do is one who knows all things!
   What light this throws on the marvelous patience of the Lord Jesus in the days of His earthly ministry! He knew the sorrow and humiliation before Him, and the manner of His death. He knew the unbelief and treachery of some who professed to be His familiar friends. But “for the joy that was set before Him” he endured it all. (Heb. xii. 2.)
   What light this throws on the folly of hypocrisy and false profession in religion! Let those who are guilty of it recollect that they cannot deceive Christ. He sees them, knows them, and will expose them at the last day, except they repent. Whatever we are as Christians, and however weak, let us be real, true, and sincere.
   Finally, what light this throws on the daily pilgrimage of all true Christians! Let them take comfort in the thought that their Master knows them. However much unknown and misunderstood by the world, their Master knows their hearts, and will comfort them at the last day. Happy is he who, in spite of many infirmities, can say with Peter: “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” (John xxi. 17.)

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

O when will thou my Saviour be,
   O when shall I be clean,
The true, eternal sabbath see,
   A perfect rest from sin!
Jesus, the sinner’s rest thou art,
   From guilt, and fear, and pain;
While thou art absent from my heart,
   I look for rest in vain.

The consolations of thy word,
   My soul hath long upheld,
The faithful promise of the Lord,
   Shall surely be fulfill’d;
I look to my incarnate God,
   ’Till he his work begin;
And wait ’till his redeeming blood
   Shall cleanse me from all sin.

His great salvation I shall know,
   And perfect liberty;
Onward to sin he cannot go,
   Whoe’er abides in thee;
Added to the Redeemer’s fold
   I shall in him rejoice:
I all his glory shall behold,
   And hear my shepherd’s voice.

O that I now the voice may hear,
   That speaks my sins forgiv’n;
His word is past, to give me here
   The inward plebdge of heav’n:
His blood shall over all prevail,
   And sanctify the unclean;
The grace that saves from future hell,
   Shall save from present sin.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 7:40–52

Israel Is Divided over Christ

Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” 41 Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

The Sanhedrin Is Confused over Christ

These verses show us, for one thing, how useless is knowledge in religion, if it is not accompanied by grace in the heart. We are told that some of our Lord’s hearers knew clearly where Christ was to be born. They referred to Scripture, like men familiar with its contents. “Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” And yet the eyes of their understanding were not enlightened. Their own Messiah stood before them, and they neither received, nor believed, nor obeyed Him.
   A certain degree of religious knowledge, beyond doubt, is of vast importance. Ignorance is certainly not the mother of true devotion, and helps nobody toward heaven. An “unknown God” can never be the object of a reasonable worship. Happy indeed would it be for Christians if they all knew the Scriptures as well as the Jews seem to have done, when our Lord was on earth!
   But while we value religious knowledge, we must take care that we do not overvalue it. We must not think it enough to know the facts and doctrines of our faith, unless our hearts and lives are thoroughly influenced by what we know. The very devils know the creed intellectually, and “believe and tremble,” but remain devils still. (James ii. 19.) It is quite possible to be familiar with the letter of Scripture, and to be able to quote texts appropriately, and reason about the theory of Christianity, and yet to remain dead in trespasses and sins. Like many of the generation to which our Lord preached, we may know the Bible well, and yet remain faithless and unconverted.
   Heart-knowledge, we must always remember, is the one thing needful. It is something which schools and universities cannot confer. It is the gift of God. To find out the plague of our own hearts and hate sin,—to become familiar with the throne of grace and the fountain of Christ’s blood,—to sit daily at the feet of Jesus, and humbly learn of Him,—this is the highest degree of knowledge to which mortal man can attain. Let any one thank God who knows anything of these things. He may be ignorant of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and mathematics, but he shall be saved.
   These verses show us, for another thing, how eminent must have been our Lord’s gifts, as a public Teacher of religion. We are told that even the officers of the chief priests, who were sent to take Him, were struck and amazed. They were, of course, not likely to be prejudiced in His favour. Yet even they reported,—“Never man spake like this Man.”
   Of the manner of our Lord’s public speaking, we can of necessity form little idea. Action, and voice, and delivery are things that must be seen and heard to be appreciated. That our Lord’s manner was peculiarly solemn, arresting, and impressive, we need not doubt. It was probably something very unlike what the Jewish officers were accustomed to hear. There is much in what is said in another place: “He taught them as One having authority, and not as the Scribes.” (Matt. vii. 29.)
   Of the matter of our Lord’s public speaking, we may form some conception from the discourses which are recorded in the four Gospels. The leading features of these discourses are plain and unmistakable. The world has never seen anything like them, since the gift of speech was given to man. They often contain deep truths, which we have no line to fathom. But they often contain simple things, which even a child can understand. They are bold and outspoken in denouncing national and ecclesiastical sins, and yet they are wise and discreet in never giving needless offence. They are faithful and direct in their warnings, and yet loving and tender, in their invitations. For a combination of power and simplicity, of courage and prudence, of faithfulness and tenderness, we may well say, “Never man spake like this Man!”
   It would be well for the Church of Christ if ministers and teachers of religion would strive more to speak after their Lord’s pattern. Let them remember that elegant bombastic language, and a sensational, theatrical style of address, are utterly unlike their Master. Let them realize, that an eloquent simplicity is the highest attainment of public speaking. Of this their Master left them a glorious example. Surely they need never be ashamed of walking in His steps.
   These verses show us, lastly, how slowly and gradually the work of grace goes on in some hearts. We are told that Nicodemus stood up in the council of our Lord’s enemies, and mildly pleaded that He deserved fair dealing. “Doth our law judge any man,” he asked, “before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”
   This very Nicodemus, we must remember, is the man who, eighteen months before, had come to our Lord by night as an ignorant inquirer. He evidently knew little then, and dared not come to Christ in open day. But now, after eighteen months, he has got on so far that he dares to say something on our Lord’s side. It was but little that he said, no doubt, but it was better than nothing at all. And a day was yet to come, when he would go further still. He was to help Joseph of Arimathaea in doing honour to our Lord’s dead body, when even His chosen Apostles had forsaken Him and fled.
   The case of Nicodemus is full of useful instruction. It teaches us, that there are diversities in the operation of the Holy Ghost. All are undoubtedly led to the same Saviour, but all are not led precisely in the same way. It teaches us, that the work of the Spirit does not always go forward with the same speed in the hearts of men. In some cases it may go forward very slowly indeed, and yet may be real and true.
   We shall do well to remember these things, in forming our opinion of other Christians. We are often ready to condemn some as graceless, because their experience does not exactly tally with our own, or to set them down as not in the narrow way at all, because they cannot run as fast as ourselves. We must beware of hasty judgments. It is not always the fastest runner that wins the race. It is not always those who begin suddenly in religion, and profess themselves rejoicing Christians, who continue steadfast to the end. Slow work is sometimes the surest and most enduring. Nicodemus stood firm, when Judas Iscariot fell away and went to his own place. No doubt it would be a pleasant thing, if everybody who was converted came out boldly, took up the cross, and confessed Christ in the day of his conversion. But it is not always given to God’s children to do so.
   Have we any grace in our hearts at all? This, after all, is the grand question that concerns us. It may be small,—but have we any? It may grow slowly, as in the case of Nicodemus,—but does it grow at all? Better a little grace than none! Better move slowly than stand still in sin and the world!

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXIII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Jesus, thy light impart
   And lead me in thy path;
I have an unbelieving heart,
   But thou canst give me faith.

The work in me fulfill,
   Which mercy hath begun;
I have a proud rebellious will,
   But thou canst melt it down.

Sin on my heart is wrote,
   I am throughout impure;
But my disease, oh Lord, is not
   Too hard for thee to cure.

The darkness of my mind,
   Lies open to thy sight;
Jesus, I am by nature blind,
   But thou canst give me light.

Send down thy Holy Ghost,
   To cleanse and fill with peace;
For O, my inward parts thou know’st
   Are very wickedness.

Thy love all power hath,
   Its power in me exert;
And give me living active faith,
   That purifies the heart.

Unrival’d reign within,
   My only sovereign be,
O crucify the man of sin,
   And form thyself in me.

Thy blood’s renewing might,
   Can make the foulest clean;
Can wash the Ethiopian white,   
   And change the leopards skin.

That, Lord, can bring me nigh,
   And wipe my sins away;
Can lift my abject soul on high,
   And call me into day.

Fulfill thy gracious word,
   And shew my guilt forgiv’n;
Bid me embrace my dying Lord,
   And mount with him to Heav’n.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

The Gospel According to John

Christ Heals the Blind Man

9 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 6 When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent) So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” 9 Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” 10 So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

The chapter we now begin records one of the few great works of Christ which St. John has reported. It tell us how our Lord gave sight to a man who had been “blind from his birth.” Here, as elsewhere in this Gospel, we find the circumstances of the miracle narrated with peculiar fullness, minuteness, and particularity. Here too, as elsewhere, we find the narrative rich in spiritual lessons.
   We should observe, first, in this passage, how much sorrow sin has brought into the world. A sorrowful case is brought before us. We are told of a man “who was blind from his birth.” A more serious affliction can hardly be conceived. Of all the bodily crosses that can be laid on man, without taking away life, none perhaps is greater than the loss of sight. It cuts us off from some of the greatest enjoyments of life. It shuts us up within a narrow world of our own. It makes us painfully helpless and dependent on others. In fact, until men lose their eyesight, they never fully realize its value.
   Now blindness, like every other bodily infirmity, is one of the fruits of sin. If Adam had never fallen, we cannot doubt that people would never have been blind, or deaf, or mdumb. The many ills that flesh is heir to, the countless pains, and diseases, and physical defects to which we are all liable, came in when the curse came upon the earth. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” (Rom. v. 12.)
   Let us learn to hate sin with a godly hatred, as the root of more than half of our cares and sorrows. Let us fight against it, mortify it, crucify it, and abhor it both in ourselves and others. There cannot be a clearer proof that man is a fallen creature than the fact that he can love sin and take pleasure in it.
   We should observe, secondly, in this passage, what a solemn lesson Christ gives us about the use of opportunities. He says to the disciples who asked Him about the blind man, “I must work while it is called to-day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
   That saying was eminently true when applied to our Lord Himself. He knew well that his own earthly ministry would only last three years altogether, and knowing this He diligently redeemed the time. He let slip no opportunity of doing works of mercy, and attending to His Father’s business. Morning, noon, and night He was always carrying on the work which the Father gave Him to do. It was His food and drink to do His Father’s will, and to finish His work. His whole life breathed one sentiment,—“I must work: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
   The saying is one which should be remembered by all professing Christians. The life that we now live in the flesh is our day. Let us take care that we use it well, for the glory of God and the good of our souls. Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling, while it is called to-day. There is no work nor labour in the grave, toward which we are all fast hastening. Let us pray, and read, and keep our Sabbaths holy, and hear God’s Word, and do good in our generation, like men who never forget that “the night is at hand.” Our time is very short. Our daylight will soon be gone. Opportunities once lost can never be retrieved. A second lease of life is granted to no man. Then let us resist procrastination as we would resist the devil. Whatever our hand findeth to do, let us do it with our might. “The night cometh, when no man can work.”
   We should observe, thirdly, in this passage, what different means Christ used in working miracles on different occasions. In healing the blind man He might, if He had thought fit, have merely touched Him with his finger, or given command with His tongue. But He did not rest content with doing so. We are told that “He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” In all these means of course there was no inherent healing virtue. But for wise reasons the Lord was pleased to use them.
   We need not doubt that in this, as in every other action of our Lord, there is an instructive lesson. It teaches us, we may well believe, that the Lord of heaven and earth will not be tied down to the use of any one means or instrumentality. In conferring blessings on man, He will work in His own way, and will allow no one to prescribe to Him. Above all, it should teach those who have received anything at Christ’s hands, to be careful how they measure other men’s experience by their own. Have we been healed by Christ, and made to see and live? Let us thank God for it, and be humbled. But let us beware of saying that no other man has been healed, except he has been brought to spiritual life in precisely the same manner. The great question is,—“Are the eyes of our understanding opened? Do we see? Have we spiritual life?”—Enough for us if the cure is effected and health restored. If it is, we must leave it to the great Physician to choose the instrument, the means, and the manner,—the clay, the touch, or the command.
   We should observe, lastly, in this passage, the almighty power that Christ holds in His hands. We see Him doing that which in itself was impossible. Without medicines He cures an incurable case. He actually gives eyesight to one who was born blind.
   Such a miracle as this is meant to teach an old truth, which we can never know too well. It shows us that Jesus the Saviour of sinners “has all power in heaven and earth.” Such mighty works could never have been done by one that was merely man. In the cure of this blind man we see nothing less than the finger of God.
   Such a miracle, above all, is meant to make us hopeful about our own souls and the souls of others. Why should we despair of salvation while we have such a Saviour? Where is the spiritual disease that He cannot take away? He can open the eyes of the most sinful and ignorant, and make them see things they never saw before. He can send light into the darkest heart, and cause blindness and prejudice to pass away.
   Surely, if we are not saved, the fault will be all our own. There lives at God’s right hand One who can heal us if we apply to Him. Let us take heed lest those solemn words are found true of us,—“Light has come into the world: but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.” (John iii. 19; 5:40)

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXIV. The Christian’s Wish
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Emptied of earth I fain would be,
Of sin, myself, and all but Thee;
Only reserved for Christ that died,
Surrender’d to the crucified.

Sequester’d from the noise and strife,
The lust, the pomp, the pride of life;
For heaven alone my heart prepare,
And have my conversation there.

O may I the Redeemer trace,
Invested with his righteousness!
This path, untir’d, I will pursue,
Nor slack while Jesus is in view.

Nothing, save Jesus, would I know;
My friend and my companion Thou!
Lord, seize my heart, assert Thy right,
And put all other loves to flight.

My idols tread beneath thy feet,
And enter’d once, maintain thy seat;
Let Dagon fall before thy face,
The ark remaining in its place.

O lend me now a two edg’d sword,
To slay my sins before the Lord;
With Abraham’s knife, before thine eyes,
Each favorite Isaac sacrifice.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

The Gospel According to John

Christ Raises Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

The chapter we have now begun is one of the most remarkable in the New Testament. For grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity, nothing was ever written like it. It describes a miracle which is not recorded in the other Gospels,—the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Nowhere shall we find such convincing proofs of our Lord’s Divine power. As God, He makes the grave itself yield up its tenants.—Nowhere shall we find such striking illustrations of our Lord’s ability to sympathize with His people. As man, He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.—Such a miracle well became the end of such a ministry. It was fit and right that the victory of Bethany should closely precede the crucifixion at Calvary.
   These verses teach us that true Christians may be sick and ill as well as others. We read that Lazarus of Bethany was one “whom Jesus loved,” and a brother of two well-known holy women. Yet Lazarus was sick, even unto death! The Lord Jesus, who had power over all diseases, could no doubt have prevented this illness, if He had thought fit. But He did not do so. He allowed Lazarus to be sick, and in pain, and weary, and to languish and suffer like any other man.
   The lesson is one which ought to be deeply graven in our memories. Living in a world full of disease and death, we are sure to need it some day. Sickness, in the very nature of things, can never be anything but trying to flesh and blood. Our bodies and souls are strangely linked together, and that which vexes and weakens the body can hardly fail to vex the mind and soul. But sickness, we must always remember, is no sign that God is displeased with us; no, more, it is generally sent for the good of our souls. It tends to draw our affections away from this world, and to direct them to things above. It sends us to our Bibles, and teaches us to pray better. It helps to prove our faith and patience, and shows us the real value of our hope in Christ. It reminds us betimes that we are not to live always, and tunes and trains our hearts for our great change. Then let us be patient and cheerful when we are laid aside by illness. Let us believe that the Lord Jesus loves us when we are sick no less than when we are well.
   These verses teach us, secondly, that Jesus Christ is the Christian’s best Friend in the time of need. We read that when Lazarus was sick, his sisters at once sent to Jesus, and laid the matter before Him. Beautiful, touching, and simple was the message they sent. They did not ask Him to come at once, or to work a miracle, and command the disease to depart. They only said, “Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick,” and left the matter there, in the full belief that He would do what was best. Here was the true faith and humility of saints! Here was gracious submission of will!
   The servants of Christ, in every age and climate, will do well to follow this excellent example. No doubt when those whom we love are sick, we are to use diligently every reasonable means for their recovery. We must spare no pains to obtain the best medical advice. We must assist nature in every possible manner to fight a good fight against its enemy. But in all our doing, we must never forget that the best and ablest and wisest Helper is in heaven, at God’s right hand. Like afflicted Job our first action must be to fall on our knees and worship. Like Hezekiah, we must spread our matters before the Lord. Like the holy sisters at Bethany, we must send up a prayer to Christ. Let us not forget, in the hurry and excitement of our feelings, that none can help like Him, and that He is merciful, loving, and gracious.
   These verses teach us, thirdly, that Christ loves all who are true Christians. We read that “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” The characters of these three good people seem to have been somewhat different. Of Martha, we are told in a certain place, that she was “anxious and troubled about many things,” while Mary “sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word.” Of Lazarus we are told nothing distinctive at all. Yet all these were loved by the Lord Jesus. They all belonged to His family, and He loved them all.
   We must carefully bear this in mind in forming our estimate of Christians. We must never forget that there are varieties in character, and that the grace of God does not cast all believers into one and the same mold. Admitting fully that the foundations of Christian character are always the same, and that all God’s children repent, believe, are holy, prayerful, and Scripture-loving, we must make allowances for wide varieties in their temperaments and habits of mind. We must not undervalue others because they are not exactly like ourselves. The flowers in a garden may differ widely, and yet the gardener feels interest in all. The children of a family may be curiously unlike one another, and yet the parents care for all. It is just so with the Church of Christ. There are degrees of grace, and varieties of grace; but the least, the weakest, the feeblest disciples are all loved by the Lord Jesus. Then let no believer’s heart fail because of his infirmities; and, above all, let no believer dare to despise and undervalue a brother.
   These verses teach us, lastly, that Christ knows best at what time to do anything for His people. We read that “when He had heard that Lazarus was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.” In fact, He purposely delayed His journey, and did not come to Bethany until Lazarus had been four days in the grave. No doubt He knew well what was going on; but He never moved until the time came which He saw was best. For the sake of the Church and the world, for the good of friends and enemies, He kept away.
   The children of God must constantly school their minds to learn the great lesson now before us. Nothing so helps us to bear patiently the trials of life as an abiding conviction of the perfect wisdom by which everything around us is managed. Let us try to believe not only that all that happens to us is well done, but that it is done in the best manner, by the right instrument, and at the right time. We are all naturally impatient in the day of trial. We are apt to say, like Moses, when beloved ones are sick, “Heal her now, Lord, we beseech thee.” (Num. xii. 13.) We forget that Christ is too wise a Physician to make any mistakes. It is the duty of faith to say, “My times are in Thy hand. Do with me as Thou wilt, how Thou wilt, what Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. Not my will, but Thine be done.” The highest degree of faith is to be able to wait, sit still, and not complain.
   Let us turn from the passage with a settled determination to trust Christ entirely with all the concerns of this world, both public and private. Let us believe that He by whom all things were made at first is He who is managing all with perfect wisdom. The affairs of kingdoms, families, and private individuals are all alike overruled by Him. He chooses all the portions of His people. When we are sick, it is because He knows it to be for our good; when He delays coming to help us, it is for some wise reason. The hand that was nailed to the cross is too wise and loving to smite without a needs-be, or to keep us waiting for relief without a cause.

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXV. [Before Meat.] 1 Cor. x. 31.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Lord, we invite thee here,
   Vouchsafe to be our guest,
Jesus, do thou appear
   The Master of the feast;
Thy quick’ning presence let us prove,
And banquet on thy hidden love.

With manna from on high
   Feed thine inheritance,
And come and sanctify
   Our outward sustenance:
With it the inward food be giv’n,
The bread of life, the wine of heav’n.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

The Gospel According to John

13 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

   The passage we have now read begins one of the most interesting portions of St. John’s Gospel. For five consecutive chapters we find the Evangelist recording matters which are not mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We can never be thankful enough that the Holy Ghost has caused them to be written for our learning! In every age the contents of these chapters have been justly regarded as one of the most precious parts of the Bible. They have been the food and drink, the strength and comfort of all true-hearted Christians. Let us ever approach them with peculiar reverence. The place whereon we stand is holy ground.
   We learn, for one thing, from these verses, what patient and continuing love there is in Christ’s heart towards His people. It is written that “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Knowing perfectly well that they were about to forsake Him shamefully in a very few hours, in full view of their approaching display of weakness and infirmity, our blessed Master did not cease to have loving thoughts of His disciples. He was not weary of them: He loved them to the last.
   The love of Christ to sinners is the very essence and marrow of the Gospel. That He should love us at all, and care for our souls,—that He should love us before we love Him, or even know anything about Him,—that He should love us so much as to come into the world to save us, take our nature on Him, bear our sins, and die for us on the cross,—all this is wonderful indeed! It is a kind of love to which there is nothing like it, among men. The narrow selfishness of human nature cannot fully comprehend it. It is one of those things which even the angels of God “desire to look into.” It is a truth which Christian preachers and teachers should proclaim incessantly, and never be weary of proclaiming.
   But the love of Christ to saints is no less wonderful, in its way, than His love to sinners, though far less considered. That He should bear with all their countless infirmities from grace to glory,—that He should never be tired of their endless inconsistencies and petty provocations,—that He should go on forgiving and forgetting incessantly, and never be provoked to cast them off and give them up,—all this is marvellous indeed! No mother watching over the waywardness of her feeble babe, in the days of its infancy, has her patience so thoroughly tried, as the patience of Christ is tried by Christians. Yet His patience is infinite. His compassions are a well that is never exhausted. His love is “a love that passeth knowledge.”
   Let no man be afraid of beginning with Christ, if he desires to be saved. The chief of sinners may come to Him with boldness, and trust Him for pardon with confidence. This loving Saviour is One who delights to “receive sinners.” (Luke xv. 2.) Let no man be afraid of going on with Christ after he has once come to Him and believed. Let him not fancy that Christ will cast him off because of failures, and dismiss him into his former hopelessness on account of infirmities. Such thoughts are entirely unwarranted by anything in the Scriptures. Jesus will never reject any servant because of feeble service and weak performance. Those whom He receives He always keeps. Those whom He loves at first He loves at last. His promise shall never be broken, and it is for saints as well as sinners: “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John vi. 37.)
   We learn, for another thing, from these verses, what deep corruption may sometimes be found in the heart of a great professor of religion. It is written that “the devil put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Christ.”
   This Judas, we must always remember, was one of the twelve Apostles. He had been chosen by Christ Himself, at the same time with Peter, James, John, and their companions. For three years he had walked in Christ’s society, had seen His miracles, had heard His preaching, had experienced many proofs of His loving-kindness. He had even preached himself and wrought miracles in Christ’s name; and when our Lord sent out His disciples two and two, Judas Iscariot no doubt must have been one of some couple that was sent. Yet here we see this very man possessed by the devil, and rushing headlong to destruction.
   On all the coasts of England there is not such a beacon to warn sailors of danger as Judas Iscariot is to warn Christians. He shows us what length a man may go in religious profession, and yet turn out a rotten hypocrite at last, and prove never to have been converted. He shows us the uselessness of the highest privileges, unless we have a heart to value them and turn them to good account. Privileges alone without grace save nobody, and will only make hell deeper. He shows us the uselessness of mere head-knowledge. To know things with our brains, and be able to talk and preach and speak to others, is no proof that our own feet are in the way of peace. These are terrible lessons: but they are true.
   Let us never be surprised if we see hypocrisy and false profession among Christians in modern days. There is nothing new in it, nothing peculiar, nothing that did not happen even among Christ’s own immediate followers, and under Christ’s own eyes. Bad money is a strong proof that there is good coin somewhere. Hypocrisy is a strong indirect evidence that there is such a thing as true religion.
   Above all, let us pray daily that our own Christianity may at any rate be genuine, sincere, real and true. Our faith may be feeble, our hope dim, our knowledge small, our failures frequent, our faults many. But at all events let us be real and true. Let us be able to say with poor, weak, erring Peter, “Thou, Lord, who knowest all things, knowest that I love Thee.” (John xxi. 17.)

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXIX. Hab. ii. 14. For the Earth shall be filled, &c.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Bring thy kingdom, Lord, make haste,
   Bring on the glorious day,
From the greatest to the least,
   When all shall own thy sway:
When the convert world with grief,
   Shall see the error of their ways,
Lay aside their unbelief,
   And yield unto thy grace.

In thy gospel-chariot, Lord,
   Drive through earth’s utmost bound;
spread the odour of thy word
   Through all the nations round:
Fill the darken’d earth with Light,
   Thine own victorious cause advance;
Take the heathen as the right
   Of thine inheritance.

In our Day expose to view,
   The standard of the lamb;
Bid the Nations flock thereto,
   Who never knew thy name:
Let them quit the downward road,
   Compell’d thy saying to receive;
Turn’d from Satan unto God,
   With one consent believe.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 19:38–42

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. 39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

There is a peculiar interest attached to these five verses of Scripture. They introduce us to a stranger, of whom we never heard before. They bring in an old friend, whose name is known wherever the Bible is read. They describe the most important funeral that ever took place in this world. From each of these three points of interest we may learn a very profitable lesson.
   We learn, for one thing, from these verses, that there are some true Christians in the world of whom very little is known. The case of Joseph of Arimathæa teaches this very plainly. Here is a man named among the friends of Christ, whose very name we never find elsewhere in the New Testament, and whose history, both before and after this crisis, is completely withheld from the Church. He comes forward to do honor to Christ, when the Apostles had forsaken Him and fled. He cares for Him and delights to do Him service, even when dead,—not because of any miracle which he saw Him do, but out of free and gratuitous love. He does not hesitate to confess himself one of Christ’s friends, at a time when Jews and Romans alike had condemned Him as a malefactor, and put Him to death. Surely the man who could do such things must have had strong faith! Can we wonder that, wherever the Gospel is preached, throughout the whole world, this pious action of Joseph is told of as a memorial of him?
   Let us hope and believe that there are many Christians in every age, who, like Joseph, are the Lord’s hidden servants, unknown to the Church and the world, but well known to God. Even in Elijah’s time there were seven thousand in Israel who had never bowed the knee to Baal, although the desponding prophet knew nothing of it. Perhaps, at this very day, there are saints in the back streets of some of our great towns, or in the lanes of some of our country parishes, who make no noise in the world, and yet love Christ and are loved by Him. Ill-health, or poverty, or the daily cares of some laborious calling, render it impossible for them to come forward in public; and so they live and die comparatively unknown. Yet the last day may show an astonished world that some of these very people, like Joseph, honored Christ as much as any on earth, and that their names were written in heaven. After all, it is special circumstances that bring to the surface special Christians. It is not those who make the greatest show in the Church, who are always found the fastest friends of Christ.
   We learn, for another thing, from these verses, that there are some servants of Christ whose latter end is better than their beginning. The case of Nicodemus teaches that lesson very plainly. The only man who dared to help Joseph in his holy work of burying our Lord, was one who at first “came to Jesus by night,” and was nothing better than an ignorant inquirer after truth. At a later period in our Lord’s ministry we find this same Nicodemus coming forward with somewhat more boldness, and raising in the Council of the Pharisees the question, “Does our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” (John vii. 51.) Finally, we see him in the passage before us, ministering to our Lord’s dead body, and not ashamed to take an active part in giving to the despised Nazarene an honorable burial. How great the contrast between the man who timidly crept into the Lord’s lodging to ask a question, and the man who brought a hundred pounds weight of myrrh and aloes to anoint His dead body! Yet it was the same Nicodemus. How great may be a man’s growth in grace, and faith, and knowledge, and courage, in the short space of three years.
   We shall do well to store up these things in our minds, and to remember the case of Nicodemus, in forming our estimate of other people’s religion. We must not condemn others as graceless and godless, because they do not see the whole truth at once, and only reach decided Christianity by slow degrees. The Holy Ghost always leads believers to the same foundation truths, and into the same highway to heaven. In these there is invariable uniformity. But the Holy Ghost does not always lead believers through the same experience, or at the same rate of speed. In this there is much diversity in His operations. He that says conversion is a needless thing, and that an unconverted man may be saved, is undoubtedly under a strange delusion. But he that says that no one is converted except he becomes a full-blown and established Christian in a single day, is no less under a delusion. Let us not judge others rashly and hastily. Let us believe that a man’s beginnings in religion may be very small, and yet his latter end may greatly increase. Has a man real grace? Has he within him the genuine work of the Spirit? This is the grand question. If he has, we may safely hope that his grace will grow, and we should deal with him gently, and bear with him charitably, though at present he may be a mere babe in spiritual attainments. The life in a helpless infant is as real and true a thing as the life in a full-grown man: the difference is only one of degree. “Who hath despised the day of small things?” (Zech. iv. 10.) The very Christian who begins his religion with a timid night-visit, and an ignorant inquiry, may stand forward alone one day, and confess Christ boldly in the full light of the sun.
   We learn, lastly, from these verses, that the burial of the dead is an act which God sanctions and approves. We need not doubt that this is part of the lesson which the passage before us was meant to convey to our minds. Of course, it supplies unanswerable evidence that our Lord really died, and afterwards really rose again; but it also teaches that, when the body of a Christian is dead, there is fitness and meetness in burying it with decent honor. It is not for nothing that the burials of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses are carefully recorded in holy writ. It is not for nothing that we are told that John the Baptist was laid in a tomb; and that “devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.” (Acts viii. 2.) It is not for nothing that we are told so particularly about the burial of Christ.
   The true Christian need never be ashamed of regarding a funeral with peculiar reverence and solemnity. It is the body, which may be the instrument of committing the greatest sins, or of bringing the greatest glory to God. It is the body, which the eternal Son of God honored by dwelling in it for thirty and three years, and finally dying in our stead. It is the body, with which He rose again and ascended up into heaven. It is the body, in which He sits at the right hand of God, and represents us before the Father, as our Advocate and Priest. It is the body, which is now the temple of the Holy Ghost, while the believer lives. It is the body, which will rise again, when the last trumpet sounds, and, re-united to the soul, will live in heaven to all eternity. Surely, in the face of such facts as these, we never need suppose that reverence bestowed on the burial of the body is reverence thrown away.
   Let us leave the subject with one word of caution. Let us take care that we do not regard a sumptuous funeral as an atonement for a life wasted in carelessness and sin. We may bury a man in the most expensive style, and spend hundreds of pounds in mourning. We may place over his grave a costly marble stone, and inscribe on it a flattering epitaph. But all this will not save our souls or his. The turning point at the last day will not be how we are buried, but whether we were “buried with Christ,” and repented and believed. (Rom. vi. 4.) Better a thousand times to die the death of the righteous, have a lowly grave and a pauper’s funeral, than to die graceless, and lie under a marble tomb!

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXX.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Redeemer, whither should I flee,
   Or how escape the wrath to come?
The weary sinner flies to thee
   For shelter from impending doom:
Smile on me, gracious Lord, and shew
Thyself the friend of sinners now.

Beneath the shadow of thy cross,
   The heavy-laden soul finds rest:
Let me esteem the world as dross,
   So I may be of Christ possess’d!
I borrow ev’ry joy from thee,
For thou art life and light to me.

Close to my Saviour’s bloody tree,
   My soul, untir’d, shall ever cleave;
Both scourg’d and crucified with thee,
   With Christ resolved to die and live.
My pray’r, my grand ambition this,
Living and dying to be his.

O nail me to the sacred wood,
   There hold me by the Spirit’s chain,
There seal me with thy fast’ning blood,
   Nor ever let me loose again:
There may I bow my suppliant knee,
And own no other Lord but thee!

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

John 21:18–25

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” 19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”
   20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
   24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
   25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

   These verses form the conclusion of St. John’s Gospel, and bring to an end the most precious book in the Bible. The man is much to be pitied who can read the passage without serious and solemn feelings. It is like listening to the parting words of a friend, whom we may possibly not see again. Let us reverently consider the lessons which this Scripture contains.
   We learn, for one thing, from these verses, that the future history of Christians, both in life and death, is foreknown by Christ. The Lord tells Simon Peter, “When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” These words, without controversy, were a prediction of the manner of the Apostle’s death. They were fulfilled in after days, it is commonly supposed, when Peter was crucified as a martyr for Christ’s sake. The time, the place, the manner, the painfulness to flesh and blood of the disciple’s death, were all matters foreseen by the Master.
   The truth before us is eminently full of comfort to a true believer. To obtain foreknowledge of things to come would, in most cases, be a sorrowful possession. To know what was going to befall us, and yet not to be able to prevent it, would make us simply miserable. But it is an unspeakable consolation to remember, that our whole future is known and fore-arranged by Christ. There is no such thing as luck, chance, or accident, in the journey of our life. Everything from beginning to end is foreseen,—arranged by One who is too wise to err, and too loving to do us harm.
   Let us store up this truth in our minds, and use it diligently in all the days of darkness through which we may yet have to pass. In such days we should lean back on the thought, “Christ knows this, and knew it when He called me to be His disciple.” It is foolish to repine and murmur over the troubles of those whom we love. We should rather fall back on the thought that all is well done. It is useless to fret and be rebellious, when we ourselves have bitter cups to drink. We should rather say, “This also is from the Lord: He foresaw it, and would have prevented it, if it had not been for my good.” Happy are those who can enter into the spirit of that old saint, who said, “I have made a covenant with my Lord, that I will never take amiss anything that He does to me.” We may have to walk sometimes through rough places, on our way to heaven. But surely it is a comforting, soothing reflection, “Every step of my journey was foreknown by Christ.”
   We learn, secondly, in these verses, that a believer’s death is intended to glorify God. The Holy Ghost tells us this truth in plain language. He graciously interprets the dark saying, which fell from our Lord’s lips about Peter’s end. He tells us that Jesus spake this, “signifying by what death he should glorify God.”
   The thing before us is probably not considered as much as it ought to be. We are so apt to regard life as the only season for honoring Christ, and action as the only mode of showing our religion, that we overlook death, except as a painful termination of usefulness. Yet surely this ought not so to be. We may die to the Lord; as well as live to the Lord; we may be patient sufferers as well as active workers. Like Samson, we may do more for God in our death, than we ever did in our lives. It is probable that the patient deaths of our martyred Reformers had more effect on the minds of Englishmen, than all the sermons they preached, and all the books they wrote. One thing, at all events, is certain,—the blood of the English martyrs was the seed of the English Church.
   We may glorify God in death, by being ready for it whenever it comes. The Christian who is found like a sentinel at his post, like a servant with his loins girded and his lamp burning, with a heart packed up and ready to go, the man to whom sudden death, by the common consent of all who knew him, is sudden glory,—this, this is a man whose end brings glory to God.—We may glorify God in death, by patiently enduring its pains. The Christian whose spirit has complete victory over the flesh, who quietly feels the pins of his earthly tabernacle plucked up with great bodily agonies, and yet never murmurs or complains, but silently enjoys inward peace,—this, this again, is a man whose end brings glory to God.—We may glorify God in death, by testifying to others the comfort and support that we find in the grace of Christ. It is a great thing, when a mortal man can say with David, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm xxiii. 4.) The Christian who, like Standfast in “Pilgrim’s Progress,” can stand for a while in the river, and talk calmly to his companions, saying, “My foot is fixed sure: my toilsome days are ended,”—this, this is a man whose end brings glory to God. Deaths like these leave a mark on the living, and are not soon forgotten.
   Let us pray, while we live in health, that we may glorify God in our end. Let us leave it to God to choose the where, and when, and how, and all the manner of our departing. Let us only ask that it may “glorify God.” He is a wise man who takes John Bunyan’s advice, and keeps his last hour continually in mind, and makes it his company-keeper. It was a weighty saying of John Wesley, when one found fault with the doctrines and practices of the Methodists,—“At any rate our people die well.”
   We learn, thirdly, in these verses, that whatever we may think about the condition of other people, we should think first about our own. When Peter inquired curiously and anxiously about the future of the Apostle John, he received from our Lord an answer of deep meaning: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” Hard to understand as some part of that sentence may be, it contains a practical lesson which cannot be mistaken. It commands every Christian to remember his own heart first, and to look at home.
   Of course our blessed Lord does not wish us to neglect the souls of others, or to take no interest in their condition. Such a state of mind would be nothing less than uncharitable selfishness, and would prove plainly that we had not the grace of God. The servant of Christ will have a wide, broad heart, like his Master, and will desire the present and eternal happiness of all around him. He will long and labor to lessen the sorrows, and to increase the joys, of every one within his reach, and, as he has opportunity, to do good to all men. But, in all his doing, the servant of Christ must never forget his own soul. Charity, and true religion, must both begin at home.
   It is vain to deny that our Lord’s solemn caution to His impetuous disciple is greatly needed in the present day. Such is the weakness of human nature, that even true Christians are continually liable to run into extremes. Some are so entirely absorbed in their own inward experience, and their own heart’s conflict, that they forget the world outside. Others are so busy about doing good to the world, that they neglect to cultivate their own souls. Both are wrong, and both need to see a more excellent way; but none perhaps do so much harm to religion as those who are busy-bodies about others’ salvation, and at the same time neglecters of their own. From such a snare as this may the ringing words of our Lord deliver us! Whatever we do for others (and we never can do enough), let us not forget our own inner man. Unhappily, the Bride, in Canticles, is not the only person who has cause to complain: “They made me keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard I have not kept.” (Cant. i. 6.)
   We learn, lastly, from these verses, the number and greatness of Christ’s works during His earthly ministry. John concludes his Gospel with these remarkable words, “There are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”—Of course we must not torture these words, by pressing them to an excessively literal interpretation. To suppose that the Evangelist meant the world could not hold the material volumes which would be written, is evidently unreasonable and absurd. The only sensible interpretation must be a spiritual and figurative one.
   As much of Christ’s sayings and doings is recorded as the mind of man can take in. It would not be good for the world to have more. The human mind, like the body, can only digest a certain quantity. The world could not contain more, because it would not. As many miracles, as many parables, as many sermons, as many conversions, as many words of kindness, as many deeds of mercy, as many journeys, as many prayers, as many warnings, as many promises, are recorded, as the world can possibly require. If more had been recorded they would have been only thrown away. There is enough to make every unbeliever without excuse, enough to show every inquirer the way to heaven, enough to satisfy the heart of every honest believer, enough to condemn man if he does not repent and believe, enough to glorify God. The largest vessel can only contain a certain quantity of liquid. The mind of all mankind would not appreciate more about Christ, if more had been written. There is enough and to spare. This witness is true. Let us deny it if we can.
   And now let us close the Gospel of St. John with mingled feelings of deep humility and deep thankfulness. We may well be humble when we think how ignorant we are, and how little we comprehend of the treasures which this Gospel contains. But we may well be thankful, when we reflect how clear and plain is the instruction which it gives us about the way of salvation. The man who reads this Gospel profitably, is he who “believes that Jesus is the Christ, and, believing, has life through His Name.” Do we so believe? Let us never rest till we can give a satisfactory answer to that question!

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXII.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, &c.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Jesus, God of love attend,
From thy glorious throne descend;
Answer now some waiting heart,
Now some harden’d soul convert:
To our advocate we fly,
Let us feel Emanuel nigh:
Manifest thy love abroad,
Make us now the sons of God.

Hover round us, King of kings,
Rise with healing in thy wings;
Melt our obstinacy down,
Cause us to become thine own:
Set, O set the captives free,
Draw our backward souls to thee;
Let us all from thee receive
Light to see and life to live.

Prostrate at thy mercy seat
Let us our beloved meet;
Give us in thyself a part,
Deep engraven on thine heart:
Let us hear thy pard’ning voice,
Bid the broken bones rejoice;
Condemnation do away,
O make this the happy day!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Join to seek and save the lost:
Raise some sinner to thy throne,
Add a jewel to thy crown!
Are we not, without thy light,
Darken’d with Egyptian night?
Light of light, thy pow’r exert,
Lighten each benighted heart!

Prayer can mercy’s door unlock;
Open, Lord, to us that knock!
Us the heirs of glory seal,
With thy benediction fill:
Holy Spirit, make us his,
Visit ev’ry soul in peace;
Give our vanquish’d hearts to say,
Love divine has won the day!

Give the heavy laden rest,
Christ make known in ev’ry breast:
Void of thee we quickly die,
Turn our sackcloth into joy:
Witness all our sins forgiv’n,
Grant on earth a glimpse of heav’n;
Bring the joyful tidings down,
Fit us for our future crown.

Let us chaunt melodious hymns,
Loud as those of cherubims;
Join with heart and tongue to bless
Christ our strength and righteousness:
All our praise to him belongs,
Theme of our sublimest songs;
Object of our choicest love,
Thee we laud with hosts above.

Thee we hail with joint acclaim,
Shout the glories of thy name;
Ever may we feel thee thus,
Dear Immanuel, God with us!
Prince of peace, thy people see,
All our thanks we aim at thee;
Deign our tribute to receive,
Praise is all we have to give.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

For there is no partiality with God.

—Romans 2:11

This cannot mean that God makes no difference between man and man. He does make a difference; and not one, but many. Our world is a world of differences; nor would it be the fair, orderly, and goodly world it is, were it not for these. Heights, depths, colors,—mountain, valley, rock,—sea, forest, stream,—sun, moon, and stars,—“one star differing from another star in glory”: these are some of the material or physical differences that make our world what it is. Then in man there is race, nation, color; gifts of body and mind; riches and poverty; fame and obscurity; ranks, degrees, circumstances, sorrows, joys, health, sickness: these in themselves constitute a vast variety, and then they subdivide themselves into minor varieties, which increase, ad infinitum, the differences between man. God has given to every man something of his own, in respect of mind, body, parentage, possessions, gifts, feelings, country, age, health, constitution, which belongs to no other. Thus in many respects He does make a difference between man and man.

Nor can this mean that He treats men at random, without reason or plan; irrespective of character, or doings, or believings, as if His dealings were all chance dealings, blind and arbitrary. No. His treatment of His creatures is sovereign, for He is God; but they are not unreasonable; nay, they are most just, wise, and reasonable,—infinitely so.

Nor does it mean that He has no fixed plan, but takes every man as he comes, allowing each to do as he pleases, and accepting every one because of sincerity, or earnestness, or amiableness, irrespective of error or unbelief.

These are the things which men have often assumed; on which they have acted; on which they presume that God acts. These are the things on which the unbelief of the present day lays great stress; resolving every difficulty as to truth, and righteousness, and judgment to come by the reiteration of the text, “God is love.” Whether such men really believe in a God at all may be questioned; at all events, the God in whom they believe is not the God of the Bible; the “Jehovah” of the Old Testament, and the “Lord” of the New; the God of the deluge, the God of Sinai, the God of the great white throne, the God of the second death; but a God who plays fast and loose with law, and morality, and truth, and holiness; whose pardons are the result of mere indifference to sin,—if there be such things as pardon at all; whose coming assize of judgment will be a mere form or mockery, perhaps the proclamation of universal amnesty to men and devils, with the abolition of hell itself as the summing up of the whole.

But let us consider what the apostle means by saying that God is no respecter of persons. It means two things.

1. That God has no respect to the outward appearance or circumstances of a man in dealing with him. God takes him for what he is, not for what he seems. The word translated, “person,” means mask or face covering; that which disguises a man, and makes him look different from what he is. God regardeth not the person or appearance of a man. To God the man is just what he is exactly, and neither more or less. False pretences or disguises are vain. The crown of the king is no thing to him; the gems of the wealthy add nothing to the man’s acceptance; the power of the statesman does not overawe the Judge of all; the Briton is not favored because he is such, nor the Chinese disfavored because he is such. In regard to all these externalisms, or shows, or masks, there is no respect of persons with God.

2. That in regard to justice and grace, God does not follow man’s estimates at all, either outward or inward. God has His own standard, His own estimate, His own way of procedure in treating the sinner, whether for condemnation or acceptance. The usual elements which decide man’s judgment have no place in God’s.

(1.) God’s estimate or rule in regard to justice, is that the doers of the law, the whole law, the unmodified law, shall live by it. So that if any man, whoever he be, Jew or Gentile, Briton or African, can come to God, and shew that he has kept the whole law, he shall be accepted without any abatement made in consideration of outward circumstances whether national or personal.

(2.) God’s estimate or rule in regard to grace, is that any man, whoever he be, who will consent to be indebted to the Son of God and His work for acceptance, shall be accepted. This is the way in which grace shews itself to be no respecter of persons. He that has a personal claim, shall have that claim fairly considered and weighed; he that has none, but is willing to take instead the claim of another, even of Christ, shall be received according to that divine claim; whatever he may be, or may have been, in respect of sin, or demerit, or nation, or intellect, or circumstances.

The apostle’s object is to declare these three things:—

1. God’s purpose of dealing with the sons of men. He is not going to let them alone, nor to allow them to have their own way.

2. God’s plan of dealing with them. He does so as God, sovereign and righteous, yet gracious. He will be fair and reasonable in all His dealings. He will not respect men’s persons, whether high or low.

3. His willingness to receive any. He has provided a method of reception; and He invites them. He is willing, infinitely willing, to receive any one of Adam’s sons and daughters, whoever or whatever he may be.

—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXIII.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Come from on high, my King and God,
My confidence thou art;
Display the virtue of thy blood,
And circumcise my heart.

From heav’n, thy holy place, on me
Descend in mercy down;
Water of life, I thirst for thee,
To know thee for my own.

Rend, O rend the guilty veil,
That keeps me from my God;
Remove the bar, and let me feel
That I am thine abode.

O might this worthless heart of mine
The Saviour’s temple be!
Empty’d of ev’ry love but thine,
And shut to all but thee!

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

19 . . . the revealing of the sons of God.

—Romans 8

The name, sons of God, is not exclusively applicable to the church. Angels are called sons (Job 38:7); so is Adam (Luke 3:38); so is Israel (Hosea 1:10). Yet the redeemed get that name in a deeper, fuller sense, by reason of their higher standing and their closer connection with the Son of God (1 John 3:1; Romans 8:17, 29; Revelation 21:7). There are thus outer and inner, higher and lower, circles of sonship; Christ the one center; and His redeemed occupying the innermost circle or region nearest to Himself, and nearest to the Father.

The history of these “sons,”—these heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, the redeemed from among men,—divides itself into the following parts or epochs:

I. Their past eternity. They had a history ere they were born; not conscious to themselves, but truly in the eye and purpose of God. (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:3, 5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Revelation 17:8.) In these passages the history of each saint and of the church of God is traced to that eternity in which God only existed. Even then they were sons of God by anticipation; sons of God in the Father’s purpose, and in the everlasting covenant. How marvelous, how glorious their history!

II. Their unregenerate life on earth. They were born no better than others; shapen in iniquity; children of wrath; able to claim kindred only with the first Adam, only with the flesh and with earth; not a vestige of the second Adam about them; no trace of heavenly sonship; no lineament of their Father in heaven; walking according to the course of this world; hateful and hating one another; their hearts “enmity against God.”

III. Their adoption. In God’s purpose this adoption stood from eternity; but it was seen when they actually passed out of the family of the evil one into that of God. When they were begotten again they became sons, receiving the name, privileges, legal rights of Sons. Let us note the different statements of Scripture as to these things:

(1.) They are begotten again. (1 Peter 1:3.) They are born of time Spirit (John 3:3), born from above. (2.) They believe. (Galatians 3:26.) They pass out of the region of unbelief into that of faith. In believing they become sons. (3.) They receive Christ. (John 1:12.) They accept the Father’s testimony to Him as the Son of God, and the Christ of God.

(4.) They get the name of sons. (1 John 3:1) They are now “called” sons of God. This is their new name, given by God himself.

(5.) They receive the spirit of adoption. (Galatians 4:5,6.) A new spirit fills them; the spirit of sonship; and, “Abba, Father,” is their cry.

(6.) They are led by the Spirit. (Roman 8:14.) They are not their own guides; nor do they trust in human guidance; but are led by Him.

(7.) They are chastened. (Hebrew 12:7.) Discipline is their lot; and chastisement is the badge of sonship.

(8.) They are brought to glory. (Hebrew 2:10.) To this are they redeemed and called. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

(9.) They are made like Christ himself. (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2.) Conformity to the Son of God is their destiny and their privilege: “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

IV. Their time of obscurity. For a season they are hidden; men’s eyes are holden so that they do not recognize them; they are in disguise; the world does not believe that they are what they claim to be, or that their prospects are so very glorious. Their life is hid with Christ in God. It doth not yet appear what they shall be. They do not wear the raiment either of kings or of sons. They are strangers and pilgrims. This is the day of their obscurity and non-acknowledgment by men. As it was with their Lord, so with them. He was unknown and unrecognized; nay, despised and rejected. This is the discipline through which they are passing; this the manner in which they glorify the Father upon earth; this the trial of their faith, and this the touchstone of the world’s willingness to own their Lord. Are we content with obscurity?

V. The manifestation. The obscurity does not last always; nay, not long. The day is coming when the disguise shall drop off, and their royal robes display themselves; when He who is their life shall appear, they shall appear with Him. Then shall they be like Him to whom they adhered in the day of sorrow and gloom. But let us see, (1.) What this manifestation is. (The word is the same as in 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4:13.) It is revelation, or outshining, or transfiguration. They are in this conformed to their Lord. They were like Him in their obscurity; they shall be like Him in their manifestation. It shall be transfiguration glory; resurrection glory; royal glory; bridal glory; priestly glory. What a contrast between the obscurity and the manifestation will be presented in that day of unveiling, when they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. What a future is ours! how unlike our present!

(2.) When shall the manifestation be? In the day of Christ’s appearing; not in the day of death. The soul of the saint is blessed when he dies; he is with Christ in Paradise; but still the glory is not full, and the body is still in the grave; the grave is part of our obscurity. But when time Lord descends from heaven, then the dead in Christ shall rise; then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and death be swallowed up in victory.

(3.) How long shall the manifestation be? Forever. A whole eternity of glory. Our obscurity was but a day; our glory is everlasting. We are to shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever. What a blaze of splendor will break forth from the glorified church, in the day of manifestation! What, in comparison with this, is the brightness of the sun or stars?

Let us walk worthy of our prospects; content with present obscurity and shame; “passing the time of our sojourning here in fear.”

—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXIV. I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Lord, is not all from thee?
Is not all fulness thine?
Whate’er of good there is in me,
O Lord, is none of mine.

Each holy tendency
Did not thy mercy give?
And what, O Saviour, what have I
That I did not receive?

I cannot speak a word,
Or think a thought that’s good,
But what proceedeth from the Lord
And cometh forth from God.

Jesus, I know full well,
What my best actions are:
They’d sink my grievous soul to hell,
If unrefin’d they were.

Myself and all I do,
O sprinkle with thy blood;
Renew me, Saviour, ere I go,
To stand before my God.

I of myself have nought,
That can his justice please;
Not one right word, nor act, nor thought,
But what I owe to grace.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

33  Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;

—Romans 8

One of the church’s names is “elect of God”; and each of its living members is one whose name is written in the book of life from the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8). Of these chosen ones the history is thus summed up: “Whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified” (Romans 7:30).

The state in which each one of these is born into the world is that of “condemnation”; the state into which each one is brought, in believing, is that of “no condemnation” (Romans 8:1). Forgiveness of sins—present, conscious, complete forgiveness—is that into which faith introduces us, and out of which unbelief alone can keep us. Justification from all things—certain, immediate, and unchanging justification—is our portion here. It is respecting us, as men forgiven and justified, that the apostle asks, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” On believing the gospel of forgiveness, they were placed beyond the reach and risk of any charge or impeachment whatsoever; they are brought by God into such a state as to render condemnation an impossibility; for the forgiveness is irreversible, and the righteousness in which they stand is divine.

Not that they cease to be sinners. But they cease to be treated as guilty. Iniquities prevail; but there is continual forgiveness to cancel these, and a perfect righteousness to cover these, and the ever-flowing blood of the everlasting covenant to wash all guilt away as it comes up, and to prevent their peace with God from being broken. They do sin; but they have an Advocate with the Father; and who can demand the execution of the penalty in their case? Who shall condemn? Who can do it? Who dare do it? Who has the right to do it? Not angels. They are too glad to welcome back the sinner, and to take the side of those whose sight God has taken. Devils would, if they could. But they cannot. The prey is taken from the mighty, and placed beyond their grasp. The law might have done it; but it has been satisfied; nay, magnified. It has therefore no claim, and could gain no object by accusing us; for our acquittal is a righteous one—an acquittal in which law itself rejoices.

Mark, then, how complete and how satisfactory the challenge is; for the words of our text are not so much a question as a challenge—a challenge thrown down before the universe!

I. It is a righteous challenge. It is not the challenge of one who, through might, had baffled right, and triumphed over law. It is that of one who sees all righteousness fulfilled, and all good confirmed, by that very sentence which acquits himself; who, unable to contribute aught toward his own acquittal, has recognized God’s righteous way of justifying the unrighteous, and in doing so, has found deliverance from condemnation. It is a challenge so righteous, that every righteous being responds to it; so righteous, that his own conscience, even when most fully awakened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, rests satisfied and unalarmed; so righteous, that none can undertake to answer it, save those who are prepared to reject God’s way of saving the lost, and forgiving the condemned.

II. It is a holy challenge. it is not that of one who was seeking to sin that grace may abound, but of one who saw that this is God’s way of delivering him from sin, and making him hate sin. God’s way of forgiveness brings out all the loathsomeness of sin, shews it to be the enemy both of God and of the sinner. Thus the man who says, “Who shall hay anything to my charge? who is he that condemneth?” is the man who is also saying, “Now I have some hope of being holy; now I shall be delivered from sin; now sin has received its death-blow; and now love and a free pardon will do what terror and uncertainty, and an unsatisfied law, could never have done. Being delivered from the first and great matter of seeking a forgiveness, by having got that question for ever laid to rest, I am free to attend undistractedly to the one question, How shall I be holy, and by a holy life serve and glorify God?”

III. It is a joyful challenge. The question, and the way of putting it, shew the exulting gladness of the soul. It is the joy of a soul delivered from an infinite fear; from overwhelming foreboding of wrath; from the uncertainties of the future, and the dreaded vengeance of an angry God. What gladness is this! To be forgiven all sin, and clothed with an infinite righteousness! To be as thoroughly assured of the favor of God, as formerly of His displeasure! To see the dark cloud of wrath which had wrapped the soul round rise upwards, and pass away, leaving the wide azure clear and bright, with not a mist to intercept the light of reconciliation and love, pouring down from the heaven of heavens! What joy unspeakable and full of glory is this!

IV. It is an unanswerable challenge. It is boldly put, and with no muffled voice. It is spoken aloud, that all may hear, and answer if they can. But no one can take it up. There is silence in heaven, and earth, and hell. It is Paul’s challenge to the universe. Nay rather, it is the Holy Spirit’s challenge. Who shall answer Paul? Who shall answer the Holy Ghost? Who shall condemn us? Who shall lay anything to our charge? Who shall trouble our conscience or break our peace? We ask aloud; we repeat the challenge to the devil and all his legions. But no answer is given. We hear only the echo of our own voice. It is unanswerable even now; for from the first moment that we believed, we were entitled to take it up. It shall be no less unanswerable when we go down to the tomb; and we may make the caverns of the dead re-echo with it. It shall be unanswerable in the day of the Lord; so that, even when standing before the judgment seat, surrounded with angels, or surrounded with devils, we may lift up our voice and say, Who shall lay anything to my charge?

Nor is there anything presumptuous in this challenge. It is one of simple faith. It is meant for every believing man; and there is something lacking in that faith which falters here. A believed gospel ought to lead him who believes it to adopt this bold and blessed attitude. For a believed gospel is meant to assure the believing soul of forgiveness and eternal life.

It is a challenge which God himself will own. He does not reckon it too bold or too decided. He puts it into our lips, and He will acknowledge it. In our believing, we set our Amen to His testimony; and in His giving us this challenge, He is setting His Amen to our faith. Nay, not only will He own it, but He will take it up out of our lips, and Himself proclaim it through the universe, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of my elect?”

Our right to take up this challenge is simply our having believed the gospel. It is not our graces or evidences that embolden us thus to speak. It is not as holy men, or old Christians, or deeply humbled souls, that we have a warrant to do so. Our warrant is simply our having believed the gospel. How much we lose from not seeing the sure and high standing into which a believed gospel brings us, long before we have time to consider our own selves, or number up our graces! It would indeed be presumption to rest an assurance like this, or a challenge like this, upon our own graces; but it is no presumption to rest this on the gospel of the grace of God.

—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXV. Refuge in the Righteousness of Christ.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

From thy supreme tribunal, Lord,
Where justice sits severe,
I to thy mercy seat appeal,
And beg forgiveness there.

Tho’ I have sinn’d before the throne,
My advocate I see:
Jesus, be thou my Judge, and let
My sentence come from thee.

Lo, weary to thy cross I fly,
There let me shelter find:
Lord, when thou call’st thy ransom’d home,
leave me not behind!

I joyfully embrace thy love
To fallen man reveal’d;
My hope of glory, dearest Lord,
On thee alone I build.

The law was satisfy’d by him
Who flesh for me was made:
Its penalty he underwent,
Its precepts he obey’d.

Desert and all self-righteousness
I utterly forego;
My robe of everlasting bliss,
My wedding garment thou!

The spotless Saviour liv’d for me,
And dy’d upon the Mount:
Th’ obedience of his life and death
Is plac’d to my account.

Canst thou forget that awful hour,
That sad, tremendous scene,
When thy dear blood on Calvary
Flow’d out at ev’ry vein ?

No, Saviour, no; thy wounds are fresh,
Ev’n now they intercede;
Still, in effect, for guilty man
Incessantly they bleed.

Thine ears of mercy still attend
A contrite sinner’s cries,
A broken heart, that groans for God,
Thou never wilt despise.

Love incomprehensible,
That made thee bleed for me!
The Judge of all hath suffer’d death
To set his prisoner free!

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

—Romans 15

It will be good to take this apostolic prayer to pieces, and mark each separate part and truth.

I. The hope. It is of the things hoped for that the apostle is speaking. It is not to “hope,” or to “a hope,” but to “the hope,” that he is pointing. It is not that thing called “hope,” as springing up in our breasts, that he would have us dwell upon; it is the glory to be revealed, the hope which is laid up for us in heaven. This is the bright star on which he fixes our eye. The inheritance, the kingdom, the glory, the new heavens and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; these make up what the apostle announces as the church’s hope, her one resplendent hope, which is to be realized when her Lord appears. This is the hope that fills up her future, and sheds brightness on her present, even amid all her “heaviness through manifold temptations.”

II. The God of the hope. Of that hope He is the beginning, the middle, and the end; the center and the circumference; its root, and stem, and branches; its seed, its blossom, and its fruit. There is not one of these “things hoped for” but is to be traced to Him as its sole fountain head. Hence its peculiar blessedness and glory; hence also the security which we have for its realization when the fullness of the time is come. That hope cannot fail us, because the God of the hope is faithful and true. He will most surely introduce us into its glory; or rather, He will make that glory rise on us like the glory of the rising sun.

III. Fill you with all joy and peace. There is joy; ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory”; but it is not of earth. It comes down from heaven. There is peace; the peace which passeth all understanding; but its fountain is above. It is God who gives these; and He does so as “the God of the hope.” The author of the hope is the provider of the joy and the peace; so that we may be sure these will be like Himself, and like the hope. They will be like the hope, and the hope will be like them; they the earnest of the hope; and the hope their consummation and fullness. This God of the hope not only gives the joy and peace, but He fills us with them; nay, He fills us with all joy and peace, leaving out no part of the joy and the peace, and leaving no part of us unfilled! Blessed and glorious petition, “the God of the hope fill you with all joy and peace”!

IV. In believing. This joy and peace, though heavenly in their origin and nature, were not miraculous. They did not gush up into the soul like water springing from the sand by some supernatural touch. They found their way into the soul by a very natural, very simple, but very effectual channel,—the belief of God’s good hews about His only begotten Son. They were not the reward of believing; they were not purchased by believing nor did they come in after believing: they were obtained in believing. Faith did nothing but hand in its report to the soul. That report was both glad and true. As soon then as the report thus found its way in, all was changed. The joy and the peace which that report contained filled the soul. And as it was thus that the joy and peace came in, so it is thus that they continue in. They began in believing, and they are maintained in precisely the same way; so that if at any time they are interrupted, we must have recourse to the same report which gladdened us at first, and which is still as sufficient to gladden us again. The thing that gladden us was the thing which we believed. Not our way of believing it; not the quality nor the quantity of our faith; but simply the thing believed the glad tidings of great joy concerning Him who died, and was buried, and rose again. If the thing believed proves ineffectual to gladden, no considerations as to the satisfactory nature or composition of our own faith will prove sufficient. The attempt to believe in our own faith instead of believing in Christ must be abortive both in itself and in its results; and the incessant efforts of some to get up a faith worthy of being believed in, and capable of recommending them to God, are the dictate and the development of as hateful a self-righteousness as was ever exhibited by ancient Pharisee or modern Romanist. No. When the God of the hope fills us with all joy and peace, He does so by presenting us with objects full of joy and peace, so that, in believing, we are filled with the blessedness which they contain.

V. That ye may abound in the hope. The hope not only fills, but overflows, as the word “abound” might be rendered. It comes in and lights up the soul with its heavenly brightness; but it does more. It is so glorious and so boundless that the soul cannot contain it. We fix our eye on it; and as we gaze it expands, and enlarges, and intensifies. It grows brighter, and more real, and more excellent as we continue to dwell upon it. Our faith becomes more and more the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

VI. Through the power of the Holy Ghost. He comes in and dwells in us; thus working in us from within, not from without. He comes in as the Spirit of power, and love, and of a sound mind. He comes in as the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of faith, the Spirit of joy and peace, the Spirit of Christ. He comes in as “the seal” by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption; God’s own seal which stamps us as God’s property. He comes in as the witness, witnessing with our spirits that we are the sons of God. He comes in as the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. He comes in, not in feebleness, but in power; in almighty power, to work a work in us and for us, which but for Him must remain unaccomplished forever.

—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Petitionary Hymns
Poem XXXVI. For Pardon of Sin.
Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)

Jesus, thy feet I will not leave,
Till I the precious gift receive,
The purchas’d pearl possess:
Impart it, gracious Lord, while I
With supplications humblest cry,
Invest the throne of grace.

Baptize me with the Holy Ghost;
Make this the day of Pentecost,
Wherein my soul may prove
Thy Spirit’s sweet renewing pow’r,
And show me in this happy hour,
The riches of thy love.

Thou canst not always hide thy face,
Thou wilt at last my soul embrace,
Thou yet will make me clean:
My God, is there not room for me?
I’ll wait with patience, Lord, on thee,
’Till thou shalt take me in.

Remember, Lord, that Jesus bled,
That Jesus bow’d his dying head,
And sweated bloody sweat:
He bore thy wrath and curse for me
In his own body on the tree,
And more than paid my debt.

Surely he hath my pardon bought,
A perfect righteousness wrought out
His people to redeem:
O that his righteousness might be
By grace imputed now to me:
As were my sins to him.

—The Complete Works of Augustus Toplady (Sprinkle Publications, 1987).

11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

—1 Corinthians 3

The Foundation, The Building, And The Testing.

It is of himself and of Apollos that Paul is specially speaking here; or more generally, of “ministers of Christ;” “stewards of the mysteries of God” (4:1); the planters, the waterers, the labourers, the tillers, the builders (3:7, 9). Yet the great truth here taught is for all, Christians.

The special doctrine here is that there may be a right foundation and a wrong building. If the foundation be right, though the superstructure be faulty, all will not be lost; yet the loss will be great. The warning both to ministers and Christians is, to beware of building wrongly upon a right foundation.

I. The foundation. This is Christ alone. Other foundation can no man lay. Foundation stones are vast and massive; like those we see at Jerusalem, let into the solid rock of Moriah, as we see from the recent excavations. God has laid the foundation Himself (Isaiah 28:16.) Both the foundation and the laying of it are His doing. “It is finished”; the stone has been laid; once for all. When Paul says, “as a wise master builder (or architect) I have laid the foundation” (verse 10), he means that he took the great foundation-stone laid in Zion with him wherever he went to preach the gospel, and laid it as the foundation for all the different churches,—Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch, or Rome. His proclamation of Christ was his laying the foundation-stone; for this is the one stone; the one living stone, “chosen of God, and precious,” on which a church can be built or a soul rest.

II. The building. Ye are God’s building, says the apostle, speaking of the Corinthian church. As he says in verse 6, Paul planted, and Apollos watered; so here he means to say, “I laid the foundation, and others are building on it.” But there are two ways of building; the one right, enduring, precious; the other wrong, perishable, worthless; the one “gold, silver, precious stones”; the other “wood, hay, stubble.” Both are on the true foundation; but the one is like Solomon’s temple on Mount Moriah; the other like the present mosque of Omar on the same site. Applied to ministers, it points either to their actual teaching, or to the effects of their teaching; if to their teaching, it refers to the truths or errors taught by them in connection with the one truth of Christ; if to the effects of their teaching, it refers to their rearing a church made up of true saints or of formal professors. During the dark ages there might be some godly men in the ministry; but, cleaving to their superstitions, they taught much error, and built up churches full of superstitious formalists; mere wood, hay, and stubble; mere professors, who had no Christianity about them save the name. At the Reformation we see Calvin, Luther, Knox, Cranmer laying anew the foundation stone throughout Europe, and building on it gold, silver, and precious stones. Subsequently we find the Port—Royalists in France, though retaining the one foundation, building wood, hay, and stubble. So is it with individual Christians. Let them take heed how they build. Let them not say, We have got the right foundation. That is not enough. Look to the whole of your creed, lest you be connecting falsehoods or fables with the cross of Christ. Look to your lives, lest your lives should be made up of most worthless materials. What a description is this of the life of some who perhaps, after all, are Christians! “Wood, hay, stubble;” nothing more. No gold, no silver, no precious stones; nothing that will come up to God’s estimate; nothing that will stand the fire.

III. The testing. A day is coming when the building shall be “tried.” The foundation stone was “tried,” and it stood the proof; it is the “tried stone” (Isaiah 28:16, 2 Peter 2:6.) But the day of trial for the superstructures is yet to come; and the process of fire which is to try them is not yet begun. But it will come. “The fire shall devour the stubble, and the flame consume the chaff” (Isaiah 5:24.) The day is coming “that shall burn as an oven” (or furnace, Malachi 3:12.) He is coming whose “eyes are as a flame of fire”; who is “a consuming fire.” That is the testing day. Sometimes we read of the fan (Matthew 3:12), and sometimes of the fire; but both processes are for similar ends,— sifting, searching, separating (whether by wind or flame) the real from the unreal, the true from the false. Till then both are together. Man is not allowed to try his hand at separation; “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come”; let both (tares add wheat) grow together until the harvest. The sifting time is coming. Nothing will then be taken for granted. All will be subjected to the fiery ordeal; “every one shall be salted with fire” (Mark 9:49.) This, then, is the question with regard to all we believe and all we do, “Will it stand the fire?” It may look well, it may be praised by men, it may have “public opinion” on its side; but will it stand the fire? O man, will your life stand the fire? Will your religion, your creed, your politics, your plans and works, stand the fire? Soon will all be made manifest. The day shall declare it, “because it (or rather “He”) shall be revealed by fire.” Do all in anticipation of the day of fiery sifting.

IV. The result. If the work done stands the fire, and be proved to be gold and silver, then shall the doer not only be saved, but he shall receive a reward; he shall have an “abundant entrance” into the kingdom (2 Peter 1:11) If it won’t stand the fire, but proves wood, and hay, and stubble, then the doer, if he be on the foundation, shall be saved; he shall not perish with his work, but he gets no reward; he is barely saved; saved so as by fire, like one escaping merely with life out of a burning house, like Lot out of Sodom.

(1.) The importance of a right foundation. There is but one rock, one stone, laid in Zion; one cross, one Saviour.

(2.) The difference between a right foundation and a right building. There maybe the former without the latter. A false life has sometimes been connected with a true creed.

(3.) The difference between the salvation and the reward. There is such a thing as being barely saved, like the thief on the cross. There is such a thing as a “starless crown,”—a low place in heaven,—deliverance from hell, without the “recompense” and the glory. There is such a thing as a saved soul, but a wasted life.

(4.) The importance of seeking the reward as well as the salvation. Some are all their lives occupied with the latter. They never get beyond it; and, not having got the great question settled between them and God, they are not in a condition to aim at the reward. Let us at once get the matter of personal forgiveness settled, and press toward the mark (or along the line or mark, (χατά σχοπόν, Philippians 3:14) for the prize of the high calling (the “above” or “heavenly” calling, τής άνω χλήσεως), laying up treasures in heaven, seeking to “attain to the resurrection of the dead,” with all its glories.

(5.) Time ditty of judging ourselves now, that we may not be judged hereafter. Anticipate the day of the fire. Have all in readiness for it. Get quit of the wood, and hay, and stubble; all false doctrine; all unbelieving works or corrupt worship. Get the gold, and the silver, and the gems.

(6.) The awfulness of being unsaved. If to lose the reward be so terrible, what must it be to lose the salvation itself; to be lost; not to be “saved even so as by fire,” but to perish in the fire?

—Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.