Various are the pleas and arguments, which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God. But, perhaps, one of the most common objections that they make is this, that our Lord’s commands are not practicable, because contrary to flesh and blood; and consequently, that he is “an hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed."

The fact is that we have all spent too much time on one story of the great mansion of God’s universe. We need occasionally to go upstairs or downstairs in this mansion; downstairs and in the cellar study the rocks, or upstairs and see God in some of the higher stories, and learn the meaning of the text when it says: “It is he that buildeth his stories in the heavens.”

Who is this thief and robber, who climbs over the wall of the sheepfold? this stranger, who tries to lead away the sheep of Christ? this thief and robber, who comes not but for to kill, and to steal, and to destroy? I have no doubt that it is Satan—the god of this world—the prince of the power of the air—he that entered into Judas—he who filled the heart of Ananias and Sapphira.

the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world, is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal guides.

How to Contemplate Christ's Holy Sufferings.

THERE was nothing great about Bethlehem.