Hymn for the Day

Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
Hast Thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me,
Hast cleansed and set me free,
Of old Thou hast ordained me
That I should live to Thee.

Your love had no beginning,
No cause in me was found;
That you should choose to save me,
A sinner strongly bound.
But grace not earned or sought for,
Was purposed for my soul,
For me, salvation wrought for;
Christ paid the dreadful toll.

'Twas sovereign mercy called me,
And taught my op'ning mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heav'nly glories blind.
My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing if I loved Thee,
Thou must have loved me first

(Tune: The Church's one Foundation Pg.186

There is nothing really small in human life. We start out in the morning, and what we may call a chance meeting, or the receipt of an ordinary letter, or some very slight circumstance may affect the whole of the subsequent life of quite a number of people. We call this the providence of God, and we do well; and the true Christian heart will always love to trace the hand of God in the ordinary experiences of life. For, after all, "ordinary" means "ordered," and it is the joy of the believer to realize that everything is ordered and that "all things work together for good to them that love God." The harmonious and beneficent combination of circumstances guided and overruled by the wisdom and will of God constitutes for the Christian soul the joy and cheer of everyday living. - Copied

~~~ O ~~~

Two Articles by Ebenezer Erskine:

The Vanity of the World

"The vanity and emptiness of the world appears in this, that it will never be of service to you in a day of need. Are you in sickness? All the riches of the world will not heal you; it will not cure you of a gout or a gravel: make an experiment of it, lay your head on a pillow of gold, see if that will make you sleep sound."

January 1723

Christ Looks After His Sheep

"Yea, he stands on Mount Zion above, and he has his eyes fixed upon every little sheep or lamb of his pasture; he tells all their wanderings; he is putting all their tears into his bottle; and there is not a sigh or a groan that goes from the heart of any of his oppressed ones through the land at this day, but goes to his very heart."

April, 1734.

"WHOM WE PREACH" (Colossians 1:28)

Ever since Paul was apprehended that day on the Damascus Road, by Jesus Christ Himself, that's who he preached (Acts 9:20). Wherever he was sent by God, his message was always the same. "And last of all he was seen of me also," and Paul's spiritually blinded eyes were opened and he was never the same. As he would later write by Divine inspiration: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Cor. 5:17).

From that day until he said 'the time of my departure is at hand,' he was determined not to know any thing 'save Jesus Christ, and him crucified' his eyes and his heart were full of Christ. He never saw anything to compare to Him.

Was this something peculiar to the Apostle Paul? Or was this preaching of Christ as all confined to Paul's day? Of course not. I know today we have men who claim to be called of God that have "specialized" ministries, like doctors who specialize in a particular practice of medicine. Preachers tell us they specialize or focus on the family, or prophecy, or a thousand other "special things."

I don't believe any man, whether a 'country parson' or a 'doctor of theology,' who doesn't preach Christ has been called of God. If so, his message would be 'WHOM WE PREACH' and nothing is as special as that. In Galatians 1 Paul wrote, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen (Vs. 15-16). That's the gospel. And those separated 'unto the gospel of God' will preach that message 'concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.'