APRIL 19.
 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 16:31

 

CHRIST is the immediate object of faith, and
  believing on him brings salvation to the soul.
 
He is the son of God,
  the sent of God,
  the servant of God, and
  as such he became the Saviour of
    lost and ruined sinners.
 
He did all that the law and justice could require
  in order that they may be pardoned,
  justified,
  sanctified,
  accepted of God, and
  glorified; and
  now every one that receives
  God's testimony concerning him,
    looks by faith to him, and
    places confidence in him, is saved.
 
Neither is there salvation in any other,
  or in any other way.
 
Nothing can cleanse from sin but his blood;
  nothing can justify before God but his righteousness;
  nothing can satisfy us but his Spirit; and
  nothing can bring these things into our possession
    but faith.
 
He that believeth hath everlasting life.
By grace are ye saved through faith, and
  that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
 
Reader, do you desire to be saved?
 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
  thou shall be saved.
 

Author of our sure salvation,

  Author of our faith thou art,

Call me out of condemnation,

  Sprinkle with thy blood my heart;

Give the faith that moves the mountain;

  Pardon’d, sav’d by faith alone,

Lead me through the open fountain

  To thine everlasting throne.

 
James Smith 1849

 

APRIL 18.
 
The Lord is good.
Jeremiah 33:11

 

CREATURES are comparatively good,
  God is absolutely good; in this sense,
  “there is none good but one, that is God.”
 
He is naturally good,
  for his nature is the fountain of all goodness.
He is infinitely good,
  for there is no limit to his goodness.
He is eternally good,
  for his goodness will never terminate.
He is so good,
  that he cannot be better.
 
His goodness is immutable, and
  therefore he will never be less good than
    he is at this moment.
 
He is good to all his creatures, and
  his mercy is over all his works.
 
But he is especially good to some.
 
His goodness appears in his works,
  shines forth in his providence,
  but reigns in all its glory
    in the salvation of sinners.
 
Here all the rays of his goodness meet and centre.
 
In the gift of his dear Son,
  in the promise of his Holy Spirit,
  in sending his glorious gospel,
   we see that the Lord is good.
 
But in the conversion of our souls,
  in the pardon of our sins,
  in the justification of our persons,
  in sending the Spirit of adoption into our hearts,
  and in giving us eternal life,
  we feel his goodness and rejoice in it.
 
Yes, the Lord is good or
  he would not have borne with us,
  nor would he have pardoned us until now.
 

Thy goodness, Lord, our souls confess,

Thy goodness we adore;

A spring whose blessings cannot fail,

A sea without a shore.

 
James Smith 1849

THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD.

 

APRIL 17.
 
They are not of the world.
John 17:16
 

THE world and the church are essentially distinct, 

    and must remain so.
 
Believers and unbelievers can have no real fellowship.
They differ in nature;
   the one is spiritual,
     the other carnal.
They differ in the motives which rule their conduct;
   the one is influenced by the love of Christ,
     the other by self.
They differ in the grand object of pursuit;
   the one seeks God's glory,
    the other the glorification of his lust.
 
Christians are chosen out of the world;
  they are redeemed from among men;
  they are translated into the kingdom of God's dear son;
  they are consecrated to be the temples of the Holy Ghost,
  and are brought into vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
They are not of the world, and
  therefore must not expect to be loved by the world;
  but must come out and be separate,
  and when they do so,
  God promises to receive them
  and to be a father to them,
  treating them as his sons and daughters.
 
Beloved, are you of the world?
 
Do you love the world?
 
If so, the love of the Father is not in you.
 
If we are of the world,
  we must share the world's doom;
  if separate from it,
     we shall rise above it.
 

Lord, from this world call off my love,

Set my affections right;

Bid me aspire to joys above,

And walk no more by sight.

 
James Smith 1849
 

HE PRESERVETH THE SOULS OF HIS SAINTS.

 

APRIL 16.
 
He preserveth the souls of his saints.
Psalm 97:10
 

EVERY creature needs the preserving care of its Creator,
  no power short of omnipotence is sufficient to preserve us.
 
Our weakness is so great,
  our corruptions or so strong,
  our foes are so crafty, and
  our dangers are so numerous,
  that we are never safe except the Lord keeps us.
 
We are never in such great danger,
  as when we fancy ourselves quite safe.
 
“Let him that thinketh he standeth,
  take heed lest he fall.”
 
But the Lord has promised to preserve his saints;
  they are separated from the world,
  set apart for his glory, and
  inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
 
They feel that they need preservation,
  they exercise faith in God's promise, and
  plead earnestly for it at the throne of divine grace.
 
And the Lord will preserve them
  from the designs of their foes,
  from the natural tendency of inward sin, and
  from apostatizing from his own cause.
 
“He preserveth them by the means which
  are naturally likely to injure them.
By painful afflictions,
  by losses and crosses,
  by trials and temptation,
  by reproaches and persecution,
  by the conflict within, and
  by opposition without,
he preserveth the souls of his saints.”
 

His grace shall on his saints descend,

And keep their souls secure;

From earth and hell his arm defend,

And make their victory sure.

 
James Smith 1849
 

I LOVE THE LORD.

 

APRIL 15.
 
I love the Lord.
Psalm 116:1
 

FRIEND, can you use this language?
 
Do you really love the Lord?
 
If so, why do you love him?
 
The psalmist says,
  “Because he hath heard my voice, and my supplication.”
 
The apostle said,
  “We love him, because he first loved us.”
 
If we really love God,
  it is because we know him;
  because we have applied to him,
    and have proved him gracious;
  because he has shed abroad his love in our hearts,
    and we know that he has loved us.
 
If we cannot say positively that you love him,
  Do you desire to love him?
 
If so, it is a proof that the Spirit
  has been working in your heart,
  for there was a time when you had
  no love to God, nor even a desire to love him.
 
No one desires to love God,
  until the enmity of the heart is subdued,
  the beauty of divine character is perceived,
  and the Holy Spirit has renewed the mind.
 
Enmity cannot love, nor desire to love;
  but the carnal mind is enmity against God,
  for it is not subject to the law of God,
  neither can it be, Rom. 8:7
 
If you cannot say, “I love the Lord,”
   can you not say, --
 

== I long to love my bleeding Lord,

And listening for the gracious word,

Still at thy cross I bow;

Thyself as crucified displayed,

And thus constrain my soul to say,

Thou knowst I love thee now.

 
James Smith 1849

THE LORD HELPED ME.

 

APRIL 14.
 
The Lord helped me.
Psalm 118:13

 
IF he had not, what would have become of me?
 
Can we not bear this testimony this morning,
  “The Lord helped me.”
 
Yes, before I knew his name,
  before I sought his face,
  before I ventured my soul on the
  finished work of his beloved Son,
    he helped me.
 
But since that happy period,
   in how many instances,
   in how many ways,
   by what a variety of instruments,
  has he helped me.
 
If he had not,
  conviction would have driven me to despair;
  Satan would have led me captive at his will;
  inbred lust would have gained the ascendency,
  my circumstances would have overbalanced me; and
  I had this day been a disgrace to religion, or
    have been shut up in hell.
 
But he said, “I will help thee.”
 
And I have ever found him
   “a very present help in trouble.”
 
Here I lift up my Ebenezer and,
  to the honour of his faithful love, say,
  “Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.”
 
Surely then I may with confidence conclude,
  that he will help me in time to come,
  and exclaim as David did,
    “Behold God is my helper:
      the Lord is with them that uphold my soul,”
 or rejoice and say
  “Because thou has been my help,
   therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.”
 
 

My help is in the Lord;

In danger he is near;

He wears an all victorious sword,

And will for me appear.

 
James Smith 1849
 

YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD.

 

APRIL 13.
 
Your life is hid with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:3

 

OUR God is our refuge.
 
Christ is in the Father, and
  the Father is in Christ.
Our life is in Christ, and
  Christ is our life.
 
He represented us.
He died for us.
He sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts,
  as the Spirit of Life.
He lives for us in heaven.
 
We are identified with him, and
  our interests are identified with his.
 
The union between Christ and
  us is the closest possible.
 
We are members of his body,
  of this flesh, and of his bones.
We who are joined in the Lord
  are one spirit with him.
As the husband and the wife are no more twain,
  but one flesh;
  so Christ and his people are no more two,
    but one.
 
He is the Head, we are his members.
 
He thinks for us,
  cares for us,
  provides for us,
  listened to us,
  watch is over us, and
    glories in us.
 
He has eternally secured us,
  by hiding our life with himself in the Father.
 
O glorious, soul supporting truth !
 
May I ever look upon myself as one with Christ,
  and endeavour to live
  and walk just as Jesus did.
 
My life is a treasure, and Jesus to preserve it,
  hides it with himself in God,
    as in a treasure house.
 

Our real life with Christ conceal’d

Deep in the Father's bosom lies,

And glorious as our head reveal’d,

We soon shall meet him in the skies;

He comes to bring the crowning grace,

And near himself his people place.

 
James Smith 1849