Morning, August 18
Go To Evening Reading
“Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.”
Jeremiah 51:51
In this account the faces of the Lord’s people were covered with shame, for it was a terrible thing that
men should intrude into the Holy Place reserved for the priests alone.
Everywhere about us we see like cause for sorrow. How many ungodly
men are now educating with the view of entering into the ministry!
What a crying sin is that solemn lie by which our whole population
is nominally comprehended in a National Church! How fearful it is
that ordinances should be pressed upon the unconverted, and that among
the more enlightened churches of our land there should be such laxity
of discipline. If the thousands who will read this portion shall all
take this matter before the Lord Jesus this day, he will interfere
and avert the evil which else will come upon his Church. To adulterate
the Church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a
fertile field with stones. May we all have grace to maintain in our
own proper way the purity of the Church, as being an assembly of believers,
and not a nation, an unsaved community of unconverted men.
Our zeal must, however, begin at home. Let us examine ourselves as to our right to eat at the Lord’s table. Let us see to it that we have on our wedding garment, lest
we ourselves be intruders in the Lord’s sanctuaries. Many are called, but few are chosen; the way is narrow,
and the gate is strait. O for grace to come to Jesus aright, with
the faith of God’s elect. He who smote Uzzah for touching the ark is very jealous of
his two ordinances; as a true believer I may approach them freely,
as an alien I must not touch them lest I die. Heart searching is the
duty of all who are baptized or come to the Lord’s table. “Search me, O God, and know my way, try me and know my heart.”