A Ribband of Blue | Page 5

a sinner no more suits a
true believer than the way of the believer suits the sinner. As a witness
for his MASTER in the hope of saving the lost, he may go to them; but
he will not, like Lot, pitch his tent towards Sodom; lest he be ensnared
as Lot was, who only escaped himself, losing all those he loved best,
and all his possessions. Ah, how many parents who have fluttered
moth-like near the flame, have seen their children destroyed by it, while

they themselves have not escaped unscathed! How many churches and
Christian institutions, in the attempt to attract the unconverted by
worldly inducements or amusements, have themselves forfeited the
blessing of GOD; and have so lost spiritual power, that those whom
they have thus attracted have been nothing benefited! Instead of seeing
the dead quickened, a state of torpor and death has crept over
themselves.
There is no need of, nor room for, any other attraction than that which
CHRIST Himself gave, when He said, "I, if I be lifted up ... will draw
all men unto Me." Our MASTER was ever "separate from sinners," and
the HOLY SPIRIT speaks unmistakably in 2 Cor. vi.: "What fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath
light with darkness? ... for ye are the temple of the living GOD; as
GOD hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be
their GOD, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate ... and touch not the unclean thing; and
I will receive you, and will be a FATHER unto you, and ye shall be my
sons and daughters, saith the LORD Almighty."
"Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
The seat of the scornful is one of the special dangers of this age. Pride,
presumption, and scorn are closely linked together, and are far indeed
from the mind which was in CHRIST JESUS. This spirit often shows
itself in the present day in the form of irreverent criticism. Those who
are spiritually least qualified for it are to be found sitting in the seat of
judgment, rather than taking the place of the inquirer and the learner.
The Bereans of old did not scornfully reject the, to them, strange
teachings of the Apostle Paul, but searched the Scriptures daily to see
whether these things were so. Now, forsooth, the Scriptures themselves
are called in question, and the very foundations of Christian faith are
abandoned by men who would fain be looked upon as the apostles of
modern thought. May GOD preserve His people from abandoning the
faith once for all delivered to the saints, for the baseless ephemeral
fancies of the present day!
THE POSITIVE CONDITIONS OF BLESSING.

We have considered the things which are avoided by the truly blessed
man. O, the miseries and the losses of those who fail to avoid them! We
have now to dwell upon the special characteristics of the man of GOD,
those which are at once the source of his strength and his shield of
protection.
"His delight is in the law of the LORD; "And in His law doth he
meditate day and night."
The unregenerate cannot delight in the law of the LORD. They may be
very religious, and may read the Bible as one of their religious duties.
They may admire much that is in the Bible, and be loud in its
praise--for as a mere book it is the most wonderful in the world. Nay,
they may go much further than this; and may imagine, as did Saul the
persecutor, that their life is ordered by its teachings, while still they are
far from GOD. But when such become converted, they discover they
have been blind; among the "all things" that become new, they find that
they have got a new Bible; and as new-born babes they desire the
unadulterated milk of the Word that they may grow thereby. Well is it
when young Christians are properly fed from the Word of GOD, and
have not their taste corrupted, and their spiritual constitution destroyed,
by feeding on the imaginations of men rather than on the verities of
GOD.
It is not difficult to discover what a man delights in. "Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The mother delights to
speak of her babe, the politician loves to talk of politics, the scientific
man of his favourite science, and the athlete of his sport. In the same
way the earnest, happy Christian manifests his delight in the Word of
GOD; it is his food and comfort; it is his study and his guide; and as the
Holy Spirit throws fresh light on its precious truths he finds in it a