orable experience from which he emerged as Israel— a prince, having power with God and men. In "the backside of the desert," in solitude with God, Moses was prepared for the great task of delivering Israel. In the solitude and quiet of Gethsemane the Master was strengthened for the trial and triumph of Cal vary. Such were some of the customs which entered as factors in the life of Jesus Christ, our great Exemplar. Now, let me ask you, Are they your customs? If not, I pray you establish them today, and give them henceforth an unchanging place in your life. Have you a home? Then see to it that, like the home in Nazareth, it is ordered according to the word of God, and characterized by religious customs. Be faithful and regular in your attendance upon the worshiping assembly. Let every Lord's Day find you in the Lord's house, to hear the message, and receive the blessing He has for you, and to contribute your part to the united worship and testimony of His people. And, above all, be sure to have your Gethsemane, to which, like the Master, you will ofttimes resort. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John ii. 6.) "O Lord, and Master of us all! We own thy sway, we hear thy call, GOD'S JEWELS REV. R. S. BROWN, PASTOR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FAYETTEVILLE, TENN. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." (Mal. iii. 13.) My theme is, "God's Jewels," or, as in the marginal rendering, "Special Treasure," "They shall be mine.' The phrase denotes possession, or ownership. The objects or subjects of this ownership are specified in the preceding passage as those who "feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." 1. These are God's Jewels, or Special Treasure. They are God's (first) by right of creation. Gen. 1:26. "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Here we have a record of the definite purpose in the eternal counsel of the triune God that man should come into form in obedience to the almighty fiat of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the second chapter of Genesis, seventh verse, we have a more detailed account of man's genesis: "And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." In the book of Job, chapter 33, verse 4, we have equally as positive a statement as to the origin of man; there the writer says, "The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." If this be the true origin of man, if the spirit of God made us, and the breath of the Almighty gave us life, then the physician, Luke, has grasped a most beautiful thought and expressed it in inimitable words when he says, "For in him (that is in God) we live and move and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." Acts 17:28. David, contemplating this same mysterious truth, is led to adore the author of his immortal existence in the following ascription of praise, "I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are thy words; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." Beloved, with such divine revelations as to the creative origin of man, I am bold to make this dogmatic statement, Man is an absolute and undeniable scintillation of deity. He is the immediate creation of God Almighty by and of himself. Then away with the atheistic idea that man is the result of spontaneous generation! Away with the sophistry that man is the evolution of living protoplasm from not living matter! I prefer the plain statement of the inspired word, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God's jewels by right of creation. Second, the believer is God's by right of regeneration, or recreation. Man is just as dependent upon God for his spiritual genesis as he is for his physical genesis. In referring to this spiritual genesis Christ says, John 6:44: "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Repeating this truth in a more amplified form, he says in the sixty-fifth verse, "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it was given unto him of my Father." "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Eph. 2:8. Yes, we are God's by right of regeneration. Third, we are God's by right of preservation. Our lives are continued and our destiny is fixed by the providential ordering of the Almighty. "I am the Lord (the absolute ruler), and there is none else; there is no God besides me; I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Isa. 45:5. "My times (the vicissitudes of life) are in thy hands." Ps. 31:15. "A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps." Prov. 16:9. Yes, yes, my dear friends, we are God's by right of preservation. Referring to God's particular oversight, I do not know of any more comforting words than those of David, the man who had tested the truth of what he said: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Ps. 91:9-12. How sweet the consolation, "He shall give his angels charge over thee. They shall bear thee up in their hands." As Thomas Adams so beautifully expresses this thought of the Psalmist: "We have the safeguard of the empire; not only the protection of the King, from which the wicked as outlaws are secluded, but also the keeping of the angels, to whom he hath given a charge over us, to keep us in all his ways. So nearly we participate of his divine things, that we have his own guard royal to attend us." And is there care in heaven, and is there love That may compassion of their evils move? There is, else much more wretched were the race That blessed angels he sends to and fro, To serve us wicked men, to serve his wicked foe! How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succor us that succor want! Against foul fiends to aid us militant! |