Supernatural Light...

Until this supernatural light of God enters into the soul, a man has no saving knowledge of Jehovah. He may say his prayers, read his Bible, attend preaching, observe ordinances, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, or give his body to be burned; but he is as ignorant of God as the cattle that graze in the fields! 

He may call himself a Christian, and be thought such by others, talk much about Jesus Christ, hold a sound creed, maintain a consistent profession, pray at a prayer meeting with fluency and apparent feeling, stand up in a pulpit and contend earnestly for the doctrines of grace, excel hundreds of God's children in zeal, knowledge and conversation. 

And yet, if this ray of supernatural light has never shone into his soul, he is only twofold more the child of hell than those who make no profession! 

[Joseph Philpot]

2 Corinthians 4:6 ... For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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He Upholds You!!

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand!" (Isaiah 41:10) What a precious promise this is for all God's feeble children, who are daily fearing that they shall fall or be crushed under the weight of their troubles and trials! 

O believer, what comfort is here! This promise is confirmed to you in Jesus, by His death. Yes, it is yours, as much so as if it was spoken to you directly by the mouth of God! Oh, what a mercy! God says that He will uphold you. He will put strength into you; He will enable you to bear your afflictions and will bring you safely through all your troubles. 

 Satan may say, "I will trip you up." God says, "I will uphold you!" 

Unbelief may say, "You will one day fall and perish." God says, "I will uphold you!" Your flesh may cry out, "I can never bear up under this cross." God says, "I will uphold you!" 

Your feeble heart may say, "How can I endure: such privations, such bereavements, such buffetings of Satan, such temptations, such losses, such fiery trials?" God says, "I will uphold you!" 

The Bible testifies that all believers "go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion" (Psalm 84:7) In weakness, the Lord strengthens them; in poverty, the Lord supplies their needs; in sickness, the Lord sustains them; and in death, the Lord gives them the final victory! O Father, I am weak, but You are strong. Give me of Your strength so that I may serve You and walk with You all the days of my life on this earth.

[J. C. Philpot]

1 Peter 5:7 ... Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Romans 8:28 ... And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11 ... For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 💙

All are More or Less Deeply Infected With It!

As we are led aside by the powerful workings of our corrupt nature, we are often seeking great things for ourselves. Riches, worldly comforts, respectability, to be honored, admired, and esteemed by men are the objects most passionately sought after by the world. And so far as the children of God are under the influence of a worldly principle, do they secretly desire similar things. Nor does this ambition depend upon station in life. All are more or less deeply infected with it, until delivered by the grace of God. 

The poorest man has a secret desire in his soul after "great things," and a secret plotting in his mind how he may obtain them. But the Lord is determined that His people shall not have great things. He has purposed to pour contempt upon all the pride of man. He therefore nips all their hopes in the bud, crushes their flattering prospects, and makes them for the most part poor, needy, and despised in this world. 

Whatever schemes or projects the Lord's people may devise that they may prosper in the world, God rarely allows their plans to thrive. He knows well to what consequences it would lead that this ivy creeping round the stem would, as it were, suffocate and strangle the tree. The more that worldly goods increase the more the heart is fixed upon them, the more the affections are set upon idols, the more the heart is drawn away from the Lord. He will not allow His people to have their portion here below. He has in store for them a better city, that is a heavenly one and therefore will He not allow them to seek great things in this poor perishing world. 

A child of God may be secretly aiming at great things, such as respectability, bettering his condition in life, rising step by step in the scale of society. But the Lord will usually disappoint these plans, defeat these projects, wither these gourds, and blight these prospects. God may reduce him to poverty, as He did Job. God may smite him with sickness, as He did Lazarus and Hezekiah. God may take away his wife and children, as in the case of Ezekiel and Jacob. Or God may bring trouble and distress into his mind, by shooting an unerring arrow of conviction into the conscience. 

God has a certain purpose to effect by bringing this trouble, and that is to pull him down from "seeking great things for himself." For what is the secret root of this ambition? Is it not the pride of the heart? When the Lord, then, would lay this ambition low, He makes a blow at the root. He strips away imagined hopes and breaks down rotten props. The great things sought for previously, and perhaps obtained, then fall to pieces. 

[J.C. Philpot] 

Jeremiah 45:5 ... And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

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Counted Loss...

 Loss for Christ.

This includes the loss...

  of all your fancied holiness,

  of all your vaunted strength,

  of all your natural or acquired wisdom,

  of all your boasted knowledge.

in a word, of everything in creature religion of which

the heart is proud, and in which it takes delight.

All, all must be counted loss for Christ's sake all,

all must be sacrificed to His bleeding, dying love.

Our dearest joys,

our fondest hopes,

our most cherished idols,

must all sink and give way to the grace,

blood, and love of an incarnate God.

[Joseph Philpot]

Philippians 3:7 ... But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

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The Largest Slice!!

Many profess that they are strangers and pilgrims here below. But they take care to have as much of this world's comforts as they can scrape together by hook and by crook. They talk about being 'strangers' yet can be in close friendship with men of the world. And could you see them at the exchange, at the market, behind the counter, or at home with their families you would not find one mark to distinguish them from the ungodly! 

Yet they come to chapel and if called upon to pray, they will tell the people they are "poor strangers and pilgrims in a valley of tears" while all the time their hearts are in the world and their eyes stand out with fatness and they are as light and trifling as a comic actor and have no concerns except to get the largest slice of the well-sugared cake that the world sets before them! 

It is not the 'mere profession of the lips' but 'grace in the heart', that makes a man a stranger and a pilgrim. God's people are strangers and sojourners the world is not their home nor can they take pleasure in it. Sin is often a burden to them, guilt often lies as a heavy weight upon their conscience, a thousand troubles harass their minds, a thousand perplexities oppress their souls. They cannot bury their minds in business and derive all their happiness from their successes, for they feel that this earth is not their home. They are often cast down and exercised, because they have to live with such an ungodly heart in such an ungodly world. 

[J. C. Philpot]

Hebrews 11:13 ... These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

John 12:25 ... He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Revelation 18:4 ... And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.  ❤

January 27, 1869

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, 

In all who truly fear God and believe in His dear Son; in all in whose hearts the blessed Spirit is graciously at work, both to bring down and raise up, lay low in their own eyes and make Christ precious, show the evil of sin, give them repentance for it, creating a love for true holiness and spirituality of mind, with meekness, simplicity, sincerity, tenderness, brokenness of heart, and contrition of spirit I say, where the blessed Spirit is thus at work, there and there only will there be true union in the solemn things of God. True union lies deep, and its foundations are out of sight. There is nothing in it earthly or carnal; and as what is earthly and carnal in us ever floats, so to speak, at the top, everything truly spiritual, holy, and gracious, being weighty and solid, lies at the bottom. 

If you will examine your heart, as seeing light in God's light, you will see that the best part of your religion lies the deepest. No man therefore can know anything of the mysteries of true religion and the secrets of vital godliness, who is not well brought down in his own soul. And thus, a Christian, to his wonder and surprise, finds that the lower he sinks in himself, the more that he is abased, humbled, and brought down in his soul before the Lord, the nearer he is able to approach Him. In this way a sight and sense of our dreadful sins, the evils of our heart, the iniquities which are more in number than the hairs of our head, when attended with a feeling of the infinite forbearance of God, His tender mercy in Christ, the riches of His superabounding grace, the depths of His wondrous love, are made most profitable. 

Until we are really humbled and brought down before God, with a view of His mercy and grace in Christ Jesus, we cannot bear to deal honestly with ourselves, or for others to deal honestly with us. It is our pride, our self-righteousness, our presumption, and our hypocrisy, our double dealing with God and our own consciences, which make us shrink from being searched by His Word and the light of His Spirit. As long as a man stands in his own strength or goodness, all the curses of God's law strike at him as a sinner; but when he falls flat, as it were, on his face, confessing his iniquity, loathing himself in his own eyes for his baseness, and looking up in faith, hope, and love to the Lord of life and glory, as putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, then all the storm is ceased, and the blessings, promises, and mercies of the Gospel fall upon his soul like the still small rain and the refreshing dew. 

And as these mercies enter into his heart, they bring forth in him every Gospel fruit. Prayer, and sometimes praise, spirituality of mind, love to the Lord and His truth, earnest desires to walk in His fear and live to His praise, separation in heart and spirit from an ungodly world, an understanding of the heavenly meaning of the Scriptures, and a stretching forth of the cords of love and affection toward the dear family of God these and other fruits spring up and grow in the heart which is truly brought down by grace. 

On the contrary, where the evil of sin is little seen or felt, where there is no abasement of spirit or humility of mind before the Lord, as being so utterly vile, and no corresponding sense of the infinite mercy and goodness of God, there religion for the most part is only in name. In that soil pride, self-righteousness, presumption, hypocrisy, worldliness, carnality, and covetousness, a spirit of strife and contention, a name to live when dead, a trifling with God and conscience, an indulgence of secret idols, and walking in many things which are highly displeasing to the Lord, will be found rife and strong. 

Be not afraid therefore, dear friend, of seeing the worst of yourself. You have not seen half or a tenth part, I may say a hundredth part, yet. With all your experience of many years, and all the sight and sense which you have had of the evil that is in you, you have really seen and known but little of what a fallen sinner is in the sight of God. Indeed, none of us could bear to see it. The sight would sink us into despair, unless specially held up by the power of God. 

But I would say to you and to all my friends in the Lord, be not afraid of sinking too low in your own eyes. Dread presumption, pride, self-righteousness, vain security, a dead assurance, and empty formality; but covet sweet humility, brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, tenderness of conscience, spirituality of mind, meekness, and quietness; and above all things covet earnestly precious manifestations of the Lord to your soul, sweet glimpses of His Person and work, and breakings in of the light of His countenance, and of what He is in Himself as the Son of God, and as the Mediator between God and men, the risen and glorified Intercessor, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. 

The Lord means to teach us that grace is grace, and that we can be saved in no other way. It is a lesson easy to learn in word, but to know it in its blessed reality and truth is no such easy matter; for it can only be known by knowing experimentally the depths of sin and guilt out of which it saves. When then we are being led down into these depths, there seems to be little before the soul but ruin and despair. It does not see that this sight and sense of sin is a needful preparation, to know what grace is and what grace can do; but when grace is manifested in its fullness and its super-abounding's, then the wonder is that grace so rich and free should ever be extended unto, or should ever reach, a soul so vile. 

Yours very affectionately in the truth, 

J. C. P. 

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Paltry Works!

We once thought that we could gain heaven by our own righteousness. We strictly attended to our religious duties and sought by these and various other means to recommend ourselves to the favor of God and induce Him to reward us with Heaven for our sincere attempts to obey His commandments.

And by these religious performances we thought we would surely be able to make a ladder whereby we could climb up to Heaven. This was our tower of Babel, whose top was to reach unto Heaven, and by mounting which, we thought to scale the stars.

But the same Lord who stopped the further building of the tower of Babel, by confounding their speech and scattering them abroad on the face of the earth; began to confound our speech, so that we could not pray, or talk, or boast as before; and to scatter all our religion like the chaff of the threshing floor. Our mouths were stopped, we became guilty before God, and our bricks and mortar became a pile of confusion!

When then, the Lord was pleased to discover to our souls by faith, His being, majesty, greatness, holiness, and purity; and thus, gave us a corresponding sense of our filthiness and folly then all our creature religion and natural piety which we once counted as gain, we began to see was but loss. We then saw that our very religious duties, so far from being for us, were actually against us; and instead of pleading for us before God as so many deeds of righteousness, were so polluted and defiled by sin perpetually mixed with them that our very prayers were enough to sink us into Hell, had we no other iniquities to answer for in heart, lip or life.

But when we had a view by faith of the Person, work, love, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ then we began more plainly and clearly to see with what religious toys we had been so long amusing ourselves, and what is far worse, mocking God by them.

We had been secretly despising Jesus and His sufferings, Jesus and His death,

Jesus and His righteousness, and setting up the poor, miserable, paltry works of a polluted worm, in the place of the finished work of the Son of God.

[J. C. Philpot]

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Isaiah 64:6 ...  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Romans 5:8 ...  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ❤

The Only Food!!

The only real food of the soul must be of God's own appointing, preparing and communicating. You can never deceive a hungry child. You may give it a plaything to still its cries. It may serve for a few minutes; but the pains of hunger are not to be removed by a doll. A toy horse will not allay the cravings after the mother's milk. 

So it is with babes in grace, a hungry soul cannot feed upon playthings. Altars, robes, ceremonies, candlesticks, bowings, mutterings, painted windows, intoning priests, and singing men and women, these dolls and wooden horses, these toys and playthings of the religious baby house, cannot feed the soul that, like David, cries out after the living God. (Psalm 42:2) 

Christ, the bread of life, the manna that came down from Heaven is the only food of the believing soul! 

[J.C. Philpot] 

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Ezekiel 34:15 ... I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.

John 6:51 ... I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Jeremiah 15:16 ... Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

1 Peter 2:2-3 ...  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:  If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. ❤

The Scale.

Put your soul in one side of the scale and put all that the world calls good and great in the other side. Think of everything that the heart of man can desire, riches, honor, pleasure, power. Heap it up well! 

Fill one side of the scale until there is no room for more. Put in all the gold of Australia, all the diamonds of India, all the delights of youthful love, all the pleasures of wife and home, of children and friends, of health and strength, of name and fame. Put in all that the natural mind of man deems the height of happiness, and everything that may weigh this side of the scale down. 

Now, when you have filled this side of the scale, put your soul into the other side, the state of your soul for all eternity. Represent to yourself your deathbed, hold the scale with dying hands as lying just at the brink of eternity. See how the scale now hangs! 

What if you had the whole world that you have put into the scale and could call it all your own; but at that solemn hour felt that your soul was forever lost, that you were dying under the wrath of God and there was nothing before you but an eternity of misery!  At such a moment as this, what could you put in the scale equal to the weight of your immortal soul? 

Take the scale again. Put into one side, every affliction, trial, sorrow, and distress that imagination can conceive, or tongue express. Let them all be yours, distress of mind, pain of body, poverty of circumstances, contempt from man, assaults from Satan, Job's afflictions, Jacob's bereavements, David's persecutions, Jeremiah's prison, Hezekiah's sickness.  Put into this side of the scale everything that makes life miserable and then put into the other side, a saved soul. 

Surely, as in the case of worldly honors, and riches, and happiness, a lost soul must weigh them all down! So, in the case of afflictions and sorrows and troubles, a saved soul must weigh them all down too! 

[Joseph Philpot] 

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Matthew 16:26 ... For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Luke 12:20 ... But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

2 Corinthians 4:17 ... For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ❤

Deny and Renounce Self

To deny and renounce self lies at the very foundation of vital godliness. It is easy in some measure to leave the world; easy to leave the professing church; but to go forth out of self, there is the difficulty, for this "self" embraces such a variety of forms. What varied shapes and forms does this monster SELF assume! How hard to trace his windings! How difficult to track this wily foe to his hidden den; drag him out of the cave; and immolate him at the foot of the cross, as Samuel hewed down Agag in Gilgal. 

Proud self, righteous self, covetous self, ambitious self, sensual self, deceitful self, religious self, flesh-pleasing self. How difficult to detect, unmask, strip out of its changeable suits of apparel this ugly, misshaped creature; and then stamp upon it, as if one would crush its viper head with the heel of our boot! 

Who will do such violence to beloved self, when every nerve quivers and shrinks; and the coward heart cries to the uplifted foot, "Spare, spare!" But unless there is this self-crucifixion, there is no walking hand in hand with Christ, no heavenly communion with Him; for there can no more be a partnership between Christ and self, than there can be a partnership between Christ and sin. 

[Joseph Philpot] 

Mark 8:34 ... And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

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"My Grace Is Sufficient For You"

Not your strength, not your wisdom, not your prayers, not your experience; but "My grace," my free, my matchless grace; independent of all works and efforts, independent of everything in the creature, flowing wholly and solely, fully and freely, out of the bosom of Jesus to the needy, the guilty, the destitute, the undone. 

You who are tried in worldly circumstances, who have to endure the hard lot of poverty: "My grace is sufficient for you." 

You who are tempted, day by day, to say or do that which conscience testifies against: "My grace is sufficient for you." 

You who are harassed with family troubles and afflictions and are often drawn aside into peevishness and fretfulness: "My grace is sufficient for you." 

Our weakness, helplessness, and inability are the very things which draw forth the power, the strength, and the grace of Jesus!  Believer, your case is never beyond the reach of the words: "My grace is sufficient for you!"

[Joseph Philpot]

 2 Corinthians 12:9 ... And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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The Whole Apparatus of Religion

 Religion, in some shape or other, is indispensable to the very existence of civilized society. There is a natural religion as well as a spiritual religion. Natural conscience is the seat of the former, a spiritual conscience the seat of the latter.

One is of the flesh, the other of the Spirit. One for time, the other for eternity. One for the world, the other for the elect. One to animate and bind men together as component members of society, the other to animate and bind the children of God together as component members of the mystical body of Christ. True religion is what the world does not want nor does true religion want the world. The two are as separate as Christ and Belial.

But some religion the world must have! And as it will not have and cannot have the true, it will and must have the false.

True religion is spiritual and experimental, heavenly and divine, the gift and work of God, the birthright and privilege of the elect, the peculiar possession of the heirs of God. This the world has not, for it is God's enemy, not His friend; walking in the broad way which leads to perdition not in the narrow way which leads to eternal life.

Worldly religion cannot exist without an order of men to teach it and practice its ceremonies. Hence come clergy, forming a recognized priestly caste. And as these must, to avoid confusion, be governed, all large corporate bodies requiring a controlling power thence come bishops and archbishops, ecclesiastical courts, archdeacons, and the whole apparatus of clerical government.

The ceremonies and ordinances cannot be carried on without buildings set apart for the purpose thence churches and cathedrals.

As prayer is a part of all religious worship, and carnal men cannot, for lack of the Spirit, pray spiritually they must have forms of devotion made ready to their hand; thence come prayer-books and liturgies. As there must be mutual points of agreement to hold men together, there must be written formulas of doctrine; thence come articles, creeds, and confessions of faith. And finally, as there are children to be instructed, and this cannot be safely left to oral teaching, for fear of ignorance in some and error in others, the very form of instruction must be drawn up in so many words thence come catechisms.

People are puzzled sometimes to know why there is this and that thing in an established religion why we have churches and clergy, tithes and prayer-books, universities and catechisms, and the whole apparatus of religion. They do not see that all these things have sprung, as it were, out of a moral necessity, and are based upon the very constitution of man that this great and widespread tree of a human religion has its deep roots in the natural conscience; and that all these branches necessarily and naturally grow out of the broad and lofty stem.

The attachment, then, of worldly people to a worldly religion is no great mystery. It is no riddle for a Samson to put forth or requiring a Solomon to solve.

[Joseph Philpot]

Acts 17:22 ... Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

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Eternal Union

Jude 1... to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

What a mercy it is for God's people that before they have a vital union with Christ, before they are grafted into him experimentally, they have an eternal, immanent union with him before all worlds. It is this eternal union that brings them into time existence. It is by virtue of this eternal union that they come into the world at such a time, at such a place, from such parents, under such circumstances, as God has appointed. It is by virtue of this eternal union that the circumstances of their time-state are ordained. By virtue of this eternal union, they are preserved in Christ before they are called; they cannot die until God has brought about a vital union with Christ.

Whatever sickness they may pass through, whatever injuries they may be exposed to, whatever perils assault them on sea or land, die they will not, die they cannot, until God's purposes are executed in bringing them into a vital union with the Son of his love. Thus, this eternal union watched over every circumstance of their birth, watched over their childhood, watched over their manhood, watched over them until the appointed time and spot, when "the God of all grace," according to his eternal purpose, was pleased to quicken their souls, and thus bring about an experimental union with the Lord of life and glory.

[J.C. Philpot]

John 6:44 ... No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. ❤

Holy Anointing

Have you ever had a solitary drop of this holy anointing oil fall upon your heart? One drop, if it be but a drop, will sanctify you forever to the service of God. There was not much of the holy anointing oil used for the service of the tabernacle, when we consider the size and quantity of what had to be consecrated, for Moses had to anoint therewith the whole of the tabernacle of the congregation, as well as all the vessels, with all their various accessories. When he went through the sacred work, he touched one vessel after another with a drop of oil; for one drop sanctified the vessel to the service of the tabernacle. 

There was no repetition of the consecration needed; it abode. So if you ever had a drop of God's love shed abroad in your heart, a drop of the anointing to teach you the truth as it is in Jesus; a drop to penetrate, to soften, to heal, to feed and give light, life, and power to your soul, you have the unction from the Holy One; you know all things which are for your salvation, and by that same holy oil you have been sanctified and made meet for an eternal inheritance.

[J. C. Philpot]

1 John 2:27 ...  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

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Knowing God

If we do not know Jesus for ourselves, by some spiritual discovery of his Person and work, what testimony have we of a saving interest in his grace? Because, there is no grace except that which flows through him, for "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This is what we should ever labor after.

[Joseph Philpot]

2 Peter 1:2 ... Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

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Living Stones

It is as though the Lord would here by the pen of his prophet turn our eyes to our native origin. And what is that? The same quarry out of which the other stones come. If you and I, by God's grace, are "living stones," we come out of the same quarry with the dead, unbelieving, unregenerate world; there is no difference in that respect. No, we are perhaps sunk lower in the quarry than some of those in whom God never has, and never will, put his grace. It is not the upper stratum, what is called "the capstone," of the quarry, which is to be taken to be hewn into a pillar; they go down deep into the pit to get at the marble which is to be chiseled into the ornamental column. 

So with God's saints. They do not lie at the top of the quarry; but the Lord has to go down very low, that he may bring up these stones out of the depths of the fall, and lift them, as it were, out of deeper degradation than those which lie nearer the surface. I remember reading once an expression which a Portland quarryman used when he was asked a question with respect to the hard labor of getting out the stone. He said, "It is enough to heave our hearts out." The stone lay so deep, and required such severe bodily exertion, that the laborer was forced to throw not only all his weight, sinews, and muscles into the work, but his very heart also. 

So it is with the elect of God. They are sunk so low, in such dreadful depths of degradation, at such an infinite distance from God, so hidden and buried from everything good and godlike, that, so to speak, it required all the strength and power of Jehovah to lift them out of the pit. In raising them out of the quarry of nature, he spent, as it were, upon them all his heart; for wherein was the heart of God so manifested as in the incarnation of his only-begotten Son, and in the work, righteousness, sufferings, blood, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ?

[Joseph Philpot]

Isaiah 51:1 ... Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek  the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 

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Heavenly Grace

June 17, 1861

My dear Friend, Mrs. Peake, I think I never came to London weaker in body and soul than this time. I much dreaded yesterday, and would have almost written to Mr. Brown to take my place. But I never found the promise more true, "As your day, so shall your strength be," (Deuteronomy 33:25) for I was brought through most comfortably in body and soul, and preached to a large and most attentive congregation with a strength of voice surprising to myself, and in the morning had sweet liberty of soul. On Saturday I could scarcely, from lumbago, walk round Mr. C's garden, and yet stood up for nearly three hours, at two periods yesterday, without much pain or inconvenience. As there were a great many strangers and friends from the country my non-appearance would have been a disappointment. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." (Psalm 103)

I hope you are enjoying not only the refreshing sea-breezes, but a sweet gale of heavenly grace from off the everlasting hills. Poor Mrs. has much felt this painful dispensation. May it be sanctified to the sufferers. It is sad when the pruning knife gives the branch no fruitfulness. But we need all our afflictions. You are not the only sufferer among the family of God. 1 Timothy 5:5 well describes "a widow indeed."

Yours very affectionately,

J. C. P.

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This Abominable Thing

As no heart can sufficiently conceive, so no tongue can adequately express the state of wretchedness and ruin into which sin has cast guilty, miserable man. In separating him from God, sin has severed him from the only source and fountain of all happiness and all holiness. Sin has ruined him, body and soul: it has filled the body with sickness and disease, it has defaced and destroyed the image of God in which man was created.

Sin has shattered all of man's mental faculties; broken his judgment, polluted his imagination, and alienated his affections.

Sin has made man love evil and hate God!

[J. C. Philpot]

Jeremiah 44:4 … Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.

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He Holds Our Soul

It is indeed an unspeakable mercy for the heirs of promise that the life given them in Christ and communicated by the Holy Spirit to their souls cannot be extinguished. It may sink very low, one can hardly say how low, but so low as to sink out of sight and almost out of feeling; and yet if it has once been breathed into the soul from the mouth of God, it can never die. 

Still it is most desirable that this divine life should be maintained in strength and vigor, and not sink so low as to be scarcely perceptible either to ourselves or others, for if so, we have little comfort of it in our own breast, and are of little use or service to the people of God. It is a sad thing to be satisfied with a low, lean, and lifeless state of soul, or be placing our religion in external activity and zealous attention to forms and mere externals, just to preserve a clean outside, when within there is little else but darkness, bondage, and death. How the Lord seems, as it were, obliged to plunge us into trials and afflictions to bring us out of carnality and death, and to keep us from settling on our lees like Moab!

[Joseph Philpot]

Psalm 66:9 … Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

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Preserving Grace Before Regeneration

What a mercy it is for God's people, that before they have a 'vital union' with Christ, before they are grafted into Him experimentally, they have an 'eternal union' with Him before all worlds. It is by virtue of this eternal union, that they come into the world at such a time, at such a place, from such parents, under such circumstances just as God has appointed.

It is by virtue of this eternal union, that all the circumstances of their lives are ordained. By virtue of this eternal union, they are preserved in Christ before they are effectually called.  They cannot die until God has brought about a vital union with Christ!

Whatever sickness they may pass through, whatever injuries they may be exposed to, whatever perils assault them on sea or land, die they will not, die they cannot until God's purposes are executed in bringing them into a vital union with the Son of His love.

Thus, this eternal union watched over every circumstance of their birth, watched over their childhood, watched over their manhood, watched over them until the appointed time and spot, when "the God of all grace," according to His eternal purpose, was pleased to quicken their souls, and thus bring about an experimental union with the Lord of life and glory!

[J. C. Philpot]

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Job 10:12 ... Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Psalm 37:28 ... For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

Jude 1 ... Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:❤