SHORT HELPS TO DAILY DEVOTION. JANUARY 1. CIRCUMCISION. M. L. GEN. xvii. ROM. ii. 1 E. L. DEUT. X. ver. 12. COL. ii. IT has pleased the infinite goodness of GOD to satisfy all our inquiries about the nature of man, and the nature of the world in which he is placed, by a revelation made to the world by his Son JESUS CHRIST. It gives us right and satisfactory notions of ourselves, of our true good and real evil; it shows us the true state of our condition, both our vanity and excellence, our greatness and meanness, our felicity and misery. Before this, man was a mere riddle to himself, and his condition full of darkness and perplexity: a restless inhabitant of a miserable disordered world, walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting himself in vain. But this light has dispersed all the anxiety of his vain conjectures; it has brought us acquainted with GOD, and by adding heaven to earth, and eternity to time, has opened such a glorious view of things, as makes man, even in his present condition, full of a peace of God which passes all understanding. This revelation acquaints us, that we have a spirit within us that was created after the divine image, that this spirit is now in a fallen corrupt condition, that the body in which it is placed, is its grave or sepulchre, where it is enslaved to fleshly thoughts, blinded with false notions of good and evil, and dead to all taste and relish of its true happiness. B It teaches us, that the world in which we live, is also in a disordered irregular state, and cursed for the sake of man; that it is no longer the paradise that God made it, but the remains of a drowned world, full of marks of GOD'S displeasure, and the sin of its inhabitants. Christianity aims at a mighty change, to put us into a new state, reform our whole natures, purify our souls, and make them the inhabitants of heavenly and immortal bodies. It does not leave us to grovel on in the desires of the flesh, to cast about for worldly happiness, and wander in darkness and exile from GOD; but prepares us for the true enjoyment of a divine life. The manner by which it changes this whole state of things, and raises us to an union with God, is equally great and wonderful. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," saith our blessed Saviour; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 66 As all things were at first created by the Son of God, and without Him was "not any thing made that was made;" so are all things again restored and redeemed by the same divine person. As nothing could come into being without Him; so nothing can enter into a state of happiness or enjoyment of GOD, but by Him. The price and dignity of this redemption at once confounds the pride, and relieves the misery of man. How fallen must he be from GOD, how disordered and odious his nature, that should need so great a mediator to recommend his repentance !-And, on the other hand, how full of comfort, that so high a method, so stupendous a means should be taken, to restore him to a state of peace and favour with GOD! This is the true point of view in which every Christian is to behold himself. He is to overlook the poor projects of human life, and consider himself as a creature through his natural corruption falling into a state of endless misery; but by the mercy of GoD redeemed to a condition of everlasting felicity. All the precepts and doctrines of the gospel are founded on these two great truths, the deplorable corruption of human nature, and its new birth in CHRIST JESUS. The one includes all the misery, the other all the happiness of man.- -W. Law. [Grant, Almighty God, that during the coming year I may have a deep sense of] what Thou hast done for my soul. Hold my thoughts close unto Thee; inspire me with devout meditations; strengthen and increase in me all good resolutions; and enable me to bring them to good effect. I know Thou never failest those that heartily seek Thee. Our Saviour hath bid us ask and we shall receive, seek and we shall find, knock and it shall be opened to us. Fulfil then, O gracious Lord, all my petitions: so give unto Thy servant what he humbly asks, let him that seeks find, open the gate to him that knocks; that feeling the comforts of holy fellowship and friendship with CHRIST, and studying to maintain it by a pure and blameless life; I may now and ever triumph in Thy salvation, and sing Thy praises in Thy Church on earth, and among Thy saints and angels in heaven: giving honour, blessing, power, and dominion unto Thee, O Father Almighty, and unto thy Son CHRIST JESUS to all eternity. Amen.-Bp. Patrick. O GOD, who, for our example, didst command thy beloved Son to submit his pure and innocent flesh to the rigour of the law; and for the encouragement of our hope, gavest Him the name of JESUS; teach me, I beseech Thee, with readiness and humility to obey Thy sacred laws, how contrary soever to my unmortified passions; and in all my necessities, to call with joy and confidence on Thy holy Name, in which whatever we ask, Thou hast promised to grant. I humbly adore Thy infinite patience, which hath not cut me off in the midst of my sins, but indulged me a larger time of repentance. O give me grace, after so many years of folly, no longer to abuse the precious time which Thou allowest me to work out my own salvation: but grant, that I may henceforth keep a conscience void of offence towards GoD and man, being rescued from the dominion of my corrupt affections, and confirmed and strengthened in all goodness, through the merits of JESUS CHRIST Our Only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.-Spinckes. JANUARY 2. M. L. GEN. i. MATT. i. E. L. GEN. ii. Rom. i. It is on the great doctrines of the deplorable corruption of human nature, and its new birth in JESUS CHRIST, that the whole frame of Christianity is built, forbidding only such things as fasten us to the disorders of sin, and commanding only those duties which lead us into the liberty and freedom of the sons of GOD. The corruption of our nature makes mortification, selfdenial, and the death of our bodies necessary; because human nature must be thus unmade, flesh and blood must be thus changed, before it can enter into the kingdom of heaven. Our new birth makes the reception of God's Spirit, and the participation of the holy Sacraments, necessary to form us to that life to which the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST has entitled us. So that, would we think, and act, and live, like Christians, we must act suitably to these terms of our condition, fearing and avoiding all the motions of our corrupted nature, cherishing the secret inspirations of the HOLY SPIRIT, opening our minds for the reception of the Divine life, and pressing after all the graces and perfections of our new birth. We must behave ourselves conformably to this double capacity, we must fear, and watch, and pray, like men that are always in danger of eternal death, and we must believe and hope, labour and aspire, like Christians that are called to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life. This knowledge of ourselves makes human life a state of infinite importance, placed upon so dreadful a point betwixt two such eternities. Well might our blessed Saviour say to one that begged first to go and bury his father, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead." For what is all the bustle and hurry of the world but dead show, and its greatest agents but dead men, when compared with that state of greatness, that real life to which the followers of CHRIST are redeemed?-W. Law. |