SERMON XX. ON THE LORD'S WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT OUR SERVICES. ISAIAH VI. 5-9. Then said I, woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man : of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean PAGE 195 ESSAY ON THE USE OF MEMORY AS A MEANS OF GRACE. DEUT. xi. 18, 19. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. EPH. V. 18, 19. Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. 1 TIM. iv. 14-16. Neglect not the gift that is in thee...... Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. PROV. iv. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. B PHILIP. iv. 8. Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest; . . . . think on these things. GRACE is the life of all human efforts towards sanctification. The Lord worketh in us both to will and to do. Of this I have as intimate persuasion as I have of my own existence, that man severed from his Saviour is a withered branch. I have as intimate persuasion as I have of my own existence that that line which I write or that thought which I turn over in my mind without heartily beseeching the permission, counsel, aid, guidance and blessing of the Spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Son to permit, direct and sanctify it, can be no part of my warfare as a Christian, having in it nothing of victory over the flesh. The temper of a Christian is the temper of holiness, and as we are tempted not every hour but every moment to say, do, or think something contrary to holiness, by the flesh lusting against the spirit, and as we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves, we must, if we would conform to Scripture, be always praying, and live in the very spirit of supplication. But more particularly when we are endeavouring to draw near to God, every step must be accompanied with prayer, and, and, prayer itself supposes preventing grace. But though the Lord worketh in us both to will and to do, He so worketh in us as to leave us free 1 |