Could There Be a Worse Home Than This?

We often marvel at the wonder of God made man—of Jesus coming to earth to inhabit a human body and to live in a world like this. Yet as Theodore Cuyler points out in this short reflection, Jesus is not the only member of the Godhead who has been willing to condescend for the sake of love. We speak a great deal, especially at Christmas time, of the condescension of the eternal Son of God in coming to earth, to …

Christ’s Second Advent

It does us good to consider the return of Jesus Christ. When times are difficult, when life is sorrowful, when we are just plain weary, it does us good to shift our hearts from our circumstances to Christ’s sure and certain return. That’s the purpose of this sweet poem by Reginald Heber. “The Lord shall come,” he assures us… The Lord will come: the earth shall quake, The mountains to their centre shake; And, withering from the vault of night, …

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Hang One by the Tongue and the Other by the Ear

Never has there been a medium so ideally suited for spreading gossip as social media. Never have Christians been so eager to hear an evil report about another Christian than they are today. And that means gossip, slander, and evil reports move further and faster than ever. This old warning seems even more relevant today than in the day it was issued. I plead with you to read it, to consider it, and to apply it. There is only one …

How To Pray For Someone Who Is Dying

There are few things more sobering than praying for someone who is dying, and few things more humbling than praying with someone whose time on earth is drawing to a close. In his book Facing the Last Enemy, Guy Prentiss Waters offers wise counsel to those who have the responsibility and even the privilege of this task. Here is his simple guidance on praying for those who are dying. First, we should pray that the person would have a sure …

Will the Cause of Righteousness Be Overthrown?

Sometimes it seems as if the cause of righteousness must be overthrown, as if the cause of evil must triumph in the end. Sometimes we look at the darkness of the world and wonder if and when the light will really break through. This was on the mind of De Witt Talmage in a sermon he preached many years ago and with a powerful image he shows how we need not fear. Oh, how many good people are affrighted by …

I Am Under the Unerring Care of God

Whatever circumstances we may encounter in life, whatever difficulties may befall us, whatever suffering we may have to pass through, we can have the highest confidence that none of it has come apart from the knowledge and the will of God. As the Catechism says, God “watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.” …

The Music Is Simply a Mockery

We tend to think the issues in our churches are contemporary issues that we alone have had to contend with. Yet when we read voices from ages past, we are often reminded that many issues come and go, rise and wane. This is the case with the music we sing at church. At some points the church is (rightly) focused on enabling the amateur voices in the pews and at other points (wrongly) focused on prioritizing the professional voices in …

A Faithful Mother’s Love

Janet Hamilton is one of those old poets whose work I have just begun to explore. She lived and died during an era when devotional poetry was important to Christians and I have found her poems quite enjoyable. Here is one that reflects on the beauty of a mother’s love for her child. Dear child! a faithful mother’s love For thee will toil, and watch, and pray; An angel hovering still above Thy couch by night, thy steps by day. …

Restful Blissful Ignorance

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I’m the only person in the world who reads through back issues of the Ann Arbor Baptist, a periodical from the late 1800s. But periodicals like that were the blogs of their era and within their pages I find such interesting articles and poems. One that I spotted recently (though I’ve spotted it in other works as well, sometimes adapted into a hymn) is Mary Brainard’s “I Know Not What Shall Befall Me,” …

Despise Not a Mother’s Love

I continue to work my way through the sermons of the old Presbyterian preacher De Witt Talmage. In one volume of his collected works I came across a sweet sermon in which he lauds mothers and encourages their children—especially adult children—to give them the honor they deserve. There is no emotion so completely unselfish as maternal affection. Conjugal love expects the return of many kindnesses and attentions. Filial love expects parental care, or is helped by the memory of past …