OF THF- iRsiTY OF California ^Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, i8g4. z/iu cessions No.Sip^S^ ' -i Clms-hJo, .^ . ILLIJSTRATIYE GATHERINGS. ILLUSTEATIVE GATHERINGS PREACHERS AND TEACHERS. A MANUAL OF ANECDOTES, FACTS, FIGURES, PROVERBS, QUOTATIONS, ETC. JiiapteJr f0r^^ristian f^atlmg. BT THE Rev. Gr. S. BOWES, B.A., BECTOR OP CHILLENDEN, KENT, AND LATE SCHOLAR OP CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. SECOND SERIKl ^^^ OF TH)^ ^ 'UFIVEESITT PHILADELPHIA. PERKINPINE & HIGGINS No 66 NORTH FOURTH STT:EE7. bMf^ OAXTOK FKBSS OF SHEKHAN & CO., PHILADELPHIA. i J<=> PREFACE In presenting a Second Series of Illustrative Grather- ings to the Church, the author must apologize for the delay which has occurred in its appearance. The very- kind reception the First Series met with, — its extensive sale, — the general and cofdi^l' approbation of the press, combined with the many testimonies to its usefulness re- ceived privately, — furnished the greatest encouragement to believe that a second volume would be as kindly wel- comed. It has been chiefly the desire to make the second equal, if not superior, to the first, which has made the author spend longer time than was intended in its care- ful preparation. As the plan of the two volumes is substantially the same, little need be said by way of preface to the second. The only difference which calls for remark is the omis- sion of the texts of Scripture placed at the beginning of many of the articles in the former volume. It was de- signed to follow the same plan in this also : but as the work grew by constant accumulation under the author's 1* b PREFACE. hand, tie found the quantity of matter at command ^as far too large to be comprised in one volume, without greatly enlarging the size and price, which he felt reluct- ant to do. The better plan therefore seemed to be, to omit the Scripture references and illustrations here ; and, should he be spared, to bring out before long another volume, consisting entirely of illustrations of Scripture, which is already far advancing in preparation. At the same time, there will be found in this volume a consid- erable number of texts illustrated (though not printed in small type as before,) so that the seeming difference is really slight. Having referred in the Preface to the First Series to the use of illustrations, the author will not add more to what he has there said. Of their value and power there can be no doubt. It is one of those points on which all agree. The chief difficulty is to find them ready at hand when wanted, sound in doctrine and cor- rect in taste, pithy, pointed, and forcible ; and to use them with discretion. Without disparaging the labors of others who may be engaged in the same field, the author would only say that no small labor and care have been spent in the " gathering " of those included in this volume ; and he now commits it to the great Head of the Church, with the earnest prayer that it may be made useful in the setting forth " the truth" with in- terest and power ;, that as the feathers that wing an arrow PREFACE. \ . T pierce not like the head, yet help the shaft to fly, so the thoughts of the wise here collected may be as " winged words " to many hearts, going forth with His blessing who can use all instruments for his own glory. G. S. Bowes. Chillbndbn Rectory, December, 1864. 0^j^f^ P_^- -^-^„':-; ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. ABILITIES. " Christ sendeth forth none to preach but whom he gifteth ; where the comfort is, that a small hand may thread a needle, and a little bark do better in a small river than a great ship." — Trapp, " The raven was an unclean bird ; God makes use of her to feed Elijah : though she was not good meat, yet it was good meat she brought. A lame man may with his crutch point out to you the right way, and yet not be able to walk in it himself." — Mead. "Never grieve, dearest love, at the -mint of gifts. I find the few bestowed on me the heaviest weights in my race, — the gates oftenest open for the entrance of the enemy. The gift of a broken and contrite spirit is better than the tongues of angels, and the faith that can remove mountains." — Helen Plumptre. " Gifts are as gold that adorns the temple ; grace is like the temple that sanctifies the gold." — Burhitt. "The graces of the intellect are Uke the various colors of the butterfly's wing, which, while they please the eye, keep it not from the fire by which it is destroyed." — Balfour. 9 10 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. ADVENT, SECOND. " Christ's first coming was the expectation of nations, this next is the expectation of Christians. ^ Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.' (Luke xxi. 28.) Our eyes are still dropping in this valley of tears ; but we look for the precious beams of the Sun of Mercy, that shall dry them up. No Jew did ever more earnestly wish for the Jubilee ; no servant so desireth the end of his years ; no stranger so longs to be at home ; no overladen soul so groaneth for ease ; no soldier so heartily contendeth to have his wars deter- mined with conquest, as the saints expect the promise of the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the strength of their hopes, the sweet object of their faith, in the midst of all sorrows ; the comfort of their hearts, the heart of their comforts, the encouragement of their wearied spirits, the hfe of their encouraged souls, the continual period and shutting up of their prayers. * Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.' " — Adams. " Prophecy alone can keep us in impatient patience, even in the sipirit of Lot." — Ladi/ Powerscourt. Assize Trumpet. — " Did you ever hear the sound of the trumpets, which are blown before the Judges, as they come into a city to open the assizes ? Did you ever re- flect how different are the feelings which those trumpets awaken in the minds of different men ? The innocent man, who has no cause to be tried, hears them unmoved. They proclaim no terrors to him. He listens and looks on quietly, and is not afraid. But often "there is some poor wretch waiting his trial, in a silent cell, to whom those trumpets are a knell of despair. They tell him that the day of trial is at hand. Yet a little time, and ' ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. ll he will stand at the bar of justice, and hear witness after witness telling the story of his misdeeds. Yet a little time and all will be over ; the trial, the verdict, the sen- tence ; and there will remain nothing for him but pun- ishment and disgrace. No wonder the prisoner's heart beats when he hears the trumpet's sound ! So shall the sound be of the arch-angel's trump." — Rev. I. Q, Ryle. AFFLICTIONS. "Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions." — Dodd. " Afflictions are blessings, when we can bless God for afflictions." "No affliction would trouble a child of God, if he but knew God's reason for sending it." " God may cast thee down, but he will not cast thee off:'— Case. "Adversity, like winter weather, is of use to kill those vermin, which the summer of prosperity is apt to produce and nourish." — Arrowsmith. " Every vessel of mercy must be scoured in order to brightness. And however trees in the wilderness may grow without cultivation, trees in the garden must be pruned to be made fruitful; and corn-fields must be broken up, when barren heaths are left untouched." — Arrowsmith. "A great deal of rust requires a rough file." — Moses Browne. " The wise Lord loves to feed us with hunger, and make us fat with wants and desertions." — Rutherford. "Adversity is the prosperity of a good man." 12 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. " If prosperity doth best discover our vices, adversity doth best our virtues." — Bacon. " Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punish- ment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces." — Henry. "If God does not prevent the evil of affliction, he will prevent the evil in affliction to his saints." — Swin- noek. " In sickness let me not so much say, Am I getting better of my pain, as am I getting better for it?" — Macduff. " I believe we often lose deep joys, because we are afraid of deep sorrows." — '''Doing and Suffering.'" "Nothing but the cross of Christ, can make other crosses straight." — Q. W. Mylne. " The Christian never falls asleep in the fire or in the water, but grows drowsy in the sunshine." — Ber- ridge. " Christ is the best Physician ; he never takes down the wrong bottle." — Berridge. " Afflictions ai-e God's hired laborers, to break the clods and plough the lands." "We often live under a cloud, and it is well for us that we should do so. Uninterrupted sunshine would parch our hearts. We want shade and rain to cool and refresh them." — Gruesses at Truth. " Manasseh's chain was more profitable to him than his crown." " No good man would exchange his adversity for the prosperity of a bad man." " Christian ! hath not God taught thee by his word and Spirit how to read the short-hand of his providence ? ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 13 Dost thou not know that the saints' afflictions stand for blessings ?" — CrurnaU, "In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God." — Bunyan. " Suppose a sweeping shower should upon a sudden fall, and wash away the loose dust that lies upon your ground; would you count this a loss of your land? Would any of you be troubled at this, as being bereaved of a part of your estate. Truly to the child of God all the things of the world are no other ; and if a tempest of providence suddenly sweeps them away, he is not troubled at it ; he counts it no loss of his inheritance ; the dust only is washed away, but the land is safe still." — Hophins. Christ's fan and Satan's sieve. — " We may ob- serve in this the difference between Christ and the tempter. Christ hath his fan in his hand, and he fanneth us ; the devil hath a sieve in his hand, and he sifteth us. Now a fan casteth out the worst and keepeth in the best ; a sieve keepeth in the worst and casteth out the best. So Christ and his trials purgeth chaff and cor- ruption out of us, and nourisheth his graces in us. Con- trariwise, the devil, what evil soever is in us, he confirm- eth it ; what faith or good thing soever, he weakeneth it." — Trapp, Dusky colors. — " God often lays the sum of his amazing providences in very dismal afflictions ; as the iimner first puts on the dusky colors, on which he in- tends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty. . . . The Church grows by tears and withers by smiles." — Char nock, 2 14 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. The fire burning brighter, Mrs. Savage writes one winter in her Diary, — " The coals coming to the fire with ice upon them, at first seemed as though they would put out the fire, but afterwards they made it burn more fiercely. I had this meditation. It is often so with me. That which seems against me is really for me. Have not afflictions worked for my good ? Sometimes I have gone to an ordinance, as these coals to the fire, all cold and frozen, and there I have been melted. My love and desire have been inflamed. That it hath not oftener been so, has been my own fault." "Sweet are the uses of adversity." "There is a certain pleasure and sweetness in the cross to them who have their senses exercised to discern and to find it out. There is a certain sweetness in one's seeing himself upon his trials for heaven, and standing candidate for glory; there is a pleasure in traveling over these mountains where the Christian can see the prints of Christ's own feet, and the footsteps of the flock who have been before him. How pleasant is it to a saint in the exercise of grace to see how a good God crosseth his corrupt inclinations, and prevents his folly ! Of a truth there is a paradise within this thorn-hedge. Many a time the people of God are in bonds which are never loosed till they be bound with cords of affliction. God takes them and throws them into a fiery furnace that burns off" their bonds ; and then, like the three children, Dan. iii. 25, they are loose, walking in the midst of the fire, God gives his children a potion, with one bitter ingredient ,• if that will not work upon them, he will put in a second, and so on, as there is need, that they may work together for their good : with cross winds he hastens them to their harbor. Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian that he moves but very slowly heavenward. God sends a wind of trouble that blows the burden off his back ; and then he walks more speedily on his way, after God hath drawn some . gilded earth from him that was drawing his heart away from God." — Boston. No vessel of gold is moulded without the furnace. . " It seems as evident as noon-day that the same love which prompted the Saviour to bear the curse for us, would have led him to bear all afflictions for us, were it not absolutely necessary that we should suffer in our own persons." — Dr. Payson. Love mixing the cup. "Oh!" said one (a youth aged only twenty-one years,) when con- flicting with the last enemy, "when I have most pain in my body I have most comfort in my soul. What is all I have gone through to ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 15 what Christ suffered when he, in the extremity of his pain, cried, * I thirst?' He had none but enemies about him, and they gave him vine- gar to drink ; but when I am thirsty every one is contriving the most salutary and pleasant draught for me. I would not exchange condi- tion with the greatest monarch in the world. I do not doubt but that there is love in the bottom of this cup ; it is bitter in the mouth. However, for all that, I would not go a moment before God's time is fully come; and I am sure that when all is over I shall adore the mercy and the wisdom of this dispensation." ALMOST CHRISTIANS. " Half-way to Christ is a dreadful place." — J. H. Evans. " Take you heed — to b9 near the life-boat is different to being in it, — take you heed." — J. H. Evans. " This near miss of happiness is a great misery." — Leighton. " Some are deceived with a half-work, taking ' con- viction for conversion, reformation for regeneration. We have many mermaid Christians; or, like Nebu- chadnezzar's image, head of gold and feet of clay. The devil cheats most men by putting a part for the whole; partial obedience to some commands, for uni- versal obedience to all. Endless are the delusions that Satan fastens upon souls for want of this self- search. It is necessary, therefore, that we try our state, lest we take the shadow for the substance." — Mead, " The ALTOGETHER CHRISTIAN is much in duty, and yet much above duty ; much in duty in regard of per- formances, and much above duty in regard of depend- ance ; much in duty by obeying, but much above duty by believing. He lives in his obedience, tut he does not live upon his obedience, but upon Christ and his right- eousness. The almost Christian fails in this. He ia 16 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. much in duty, but not above it, but rests in it ; he works for rest, and he rests in his works. He cannot come to believe and obey too ; if he believes, then he thinks there is no need of obedience, and so casts off that ; if he be much in obedience, then he casts off believing, and thinks there is no need of that. He cannot say with David, ' I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.' The more a man is in duty, and the more above it ; the more in doing, and more in believing, the more a Christian." — Mead. " He that is but almost a Christian, hopes for heaven, but unless he be altogether a Christian he shall never come there. Now to perish with hopes of heaven ; to go to hell by the gates of glory ; to come to the very door, and then be shut out, as the five virgins were ; to die in the wilderness, within the sight of the promised land, at the very brinks of Jordan ; this must needs be sad. To come within a stride of the goal, and yet miss it ; to sink within sight of harbor ; oh, how uncom- fortable is this !" — Mead. It is terrible to remember the quenched strivings of the Spirit which will rise in judgment against many almost Christians. " There have been times when the lost sinner was 'not far from the kingdom' of God; times when life had chastened and subdued him ; or when it had startled him into thought ; times when he proved the emptiness of his creature-delights, and said of them, * Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' Then, perhaps, he came very near the gate of the kingdom : he took the knocker in his hand ; he even knocked faintly, and heard the cry, ' Come in.' One step more and he had been saved ; but then Satan grew uneasy, and he dressed up ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 17 the objects of time and sense with such fictitious attrac- tions, he shed upon them such unreal light, he suggested how well it would be to secure both worlds, that the sin- ner drew back, intending to return at a more convenient season." — " Sayings of the King.'' Just missing the rope. A man is drowning. He Tell off the pier head, and look ! Now you see his head just above the -waves. There ! he has caught hold of the rope those men have thrown to him. Now he has it. No ! he has just missed. That huge wave has carried him further out. Noth- ing can save him now. Oh, if he had but caught the rope, when he was so near being saved ! Lost at the door. We may be almost home, and yet be lost. The bridge vaasf break just as we are placing upon it our last step. A short time since, a party of travelers descending from Mount "Washington became lost, and groped about, till one of the number, a young woman of delicate constitution, sank down from exhaustion, and died. A little water might have saved her life; or the warmth of home have restored her. But she died on the spot just as daylight was breaking; and when, a few moments afterwards, her companions were able to look around, they found that they were standing but a few rods from the hotel which they had left. Thus she died, and they were lost, «o near the door. AMUSEMENTS. *' All rivers, small or large, agree in one character : they like to lean a little on one side ; they cannot bear to have their channels deepest in the middle, but will always, if they can, have one bank to sun themselves upon, and another to cool under : one shingly shore to play over, where they may be shallow and foolish and childlike; and another steep shore, under which they can pause and purify themselves and get their strength of waves fully together for due occasion. Rivers in this way are just like wise men, who keep one side of their 2 • 18 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. life for play and another for work ; and can be brilliant^ and chattering, and transparent, when they are at ease, and yet take deep counsel on the other side, when they set themselves to their main purpose. And rivers are, just in this, divided also, like wicked and good men ; the good rivers have serviceable deep places all along their banks that ships can sail in ; but the wicked rivers go scooping irregularly under their banks, until they get full of strangling eddies which no boat can row over without being twisted against the rocks, and pools like wells, which no one can get out of, but the water Kelpie that lives at the bottom ; but wicked or good, the rivers all agree in having two kinds of sides." — Buskin. " When the soul is quite at ease, then it may conde- scend to be amused ; but a hungry soul wants bread." — J. H. Evans. " The best test in all these things (dress and amuse- ments) is, Lord, thou seest me, and I shall soon see thee." — J. H. Evans. ANTIQUITY. " We are often referred to antiquity in these our days, and no child of God that loves his Bible can object to this. We only find fault that they do not go hack far enough.'' — J. M. Evans. ANSWERS TO PRAYER. "Prayer is the breath of the soul, and answered prayer is the bread of the soul." "Prayer, like Jonathan's bow, returns not empty. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty as the praying saint ; some ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 19 prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others, but then they return with the richer lading at last." — Crur- nall. " Look once again, poor heart, into thine own bosom, and see whether thou findest not some strength sent in to thee, which thou didst overlook before ; this may be, yea, is very ordinary in this case, when God answers our prayer not in the letter, or when the thing itself is sent, but it comes in at the back door, while we are expecting it at the front ; and truly thus the friend thou art look- ing for may be in thine house and thou not know it. Is not this thy case, poor soul?" — Gurnall. Should be looked for. — " Clfildren shoot arrows on purpose to lose them, and never so much as look where they light ; but men, when they shoot, aim at the mark, and go after the arrow to see how near it falls. So wicked carnal men, when they have said, not made, their prayers to Almighty God ; it is but opus operatum, they have no more regard of them. But God's children, when they upon the bended knees of their souls dart out their prayers, when they pour out their requests unto him, they look after their prayers, eye them up into heaven, observe how God entertains them, and wait for a happy return at his good will and pleasure." " God often answers the prayer of his people, as he did the seed of Isaac, with a hundred-fold increase. (Gen. xxvi. 12.) As God's word never returns empty to him, so the prayers of his servants never return empty to them ; and usually the crop of prayer is greater than the seed out of which it grew ; as the putting in of a little water into a pump makes way to the drawing out of a great deal more. As the cloud which rises out of the 20 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. earth often in thin and insensible vapors falls down in abundant showers ; so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return with a full and enlarged answer "— - Bishop Reynolds ^ When poor men make requests to us, we usually answer them as the echo does the voice ; the answer cuts off half the petition. Like the hypocrite noticed by the apostle (James ii. 15, 16.) We shall seldom find among men, Jael's courtesy (Judges v. 25,) giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as his was, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief. There are not many Naamans among us, that, when you beg of them one talent, will f§rce you to take two (2 Kings v. 23 ;) but God's answer to our prayers is like a multiply- ing glass, which renders the request much greater in the answer than it was in the prayer." — Bishop Reynolds. " Certainly mercies stop not at God, but at us. We are not straitened in him, but straitened in our own bowels. If there come but a little light into a room, the defect is not in the sun, but in the narrowness of the window. If a vessel fill but slowly, the fault is not in any emptiness in the fountain, but the smallness of the pipe. If mercies ripen slowly, or stop at any time in the way, it is not because they are unwilling to come to us, but be- cause we are unfit to enjoy them. Our prayers doubt- less, in many cases, have not been words taken from the revealed mind of God, but from our own carnal dictates." — Bishop Reynolds. Sometimes better than we expected. — "It may not please God to hear me, in the very way I ask or wish, but he will hear and answer prayer. Such prayer has been not inaptly compared to aiming a stick at a fuU ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. , 21 fruit tree. The particular apple, at which you aimed, ia perhaps not reached, but others, possibly larger and riper, fall around." — ''' Mothers in Council.*' After patient persevering effort. Does it at times seem as if tiiere were no hope of our prayers being answered ? Let not the well-known fable of the crow and the pitcher be too familiar not to furnish us with a useful lesson of encourage- ment. The crow, ready to die with thirst, flew to a pitcher, which it saw at a distance. But when he came to it, he found the water so low, that with all his stooping and straining, he was unable to taste a drop. Thereupon he tried to break the pitcher; then to overturn it; but his strength was not sufficient jto do either. At last seeing some small pebbles at hand, he droppe^d a good many of them, one by one, into the pitcher, and so raised the water to the brim, and quenched his thirst So may it be with our prayers. Every pebble we cast in, to adapt the figure, may bring the water of life nearer to our thirsting lips. The Lord may desire us first to feel the cravings of desire and want, ho may lead us to patient continuance in the use of means ; but every efTort brings the blessing nearer, until in time, the thirsting soul is fully satisfied, and the needed measure of our prayers is full. Augustine relates of himself, that before his conver- sion, he used to pray against his sins, and feel afraid lest God should hear his prayers, and take him at his word. At other times, his "inward thought " was, " Lord, hear me, but not yet.** The runaway knock. — " While the prayer of faith," said an eloquent Welsh preacher, " is sure to succeed, our prayers, alas ! too often resemble the mischievous tricks of children in a town, who knock at their neigh- bors' houses, and then run away. We often knock at mercy's door, and then run away, instead of waiting for an entrance and an answer. Thus we act as if we were afraid of having our prayers answered." ~ Anecdotes illustrative of answers to prayer might here be aptly ad- duced, but that their number renders a selection almost a hopeless task. Mr. Philipps in his " Remarkable Answers to Prayer," has filled 22 ILLUSTEATIVE GATHERINGS. a whole book with examples, to which the reader is referred ; Remark' able Providences Illustrating the Divine Government, as also to the several instances given in Arvine's and Cheever's Cyclopaedia of Anec- dotes, and Prime's " Power of Prayer." ASSURANCE. The old writers abound in figures, setting forth the sweetness of assurance. Thomas Watson says, " It is the manna in the golden pot, the white stone, the wine of Paradise, that cheers the heart. It is God's smile upon his children ; the sun rising out from its cloudy bed ; like the spirit in JEzehieVs wheels, that moved them and lifted them up. It is like the mariner's lantern on the deck, which gives light in the darkness of the night." Not always enjoyed. — There may be the seed of faith without the fruit of comfort. " You may have the water of the Spirit poured upon you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance ; there may be the faith of adherence, and not of evidence ; there may be life in the root when there is no fruit on the branches to be seen ; so faith in the spirit when no fruit of assur- ance." — Thomas Watson. Not essential to salvation, though comforting. — " It is one thing for a man to have his salvation cer- tain, another thing to be certain that it is certain. Even as a man fallen into a river, and like to be drowned as he is carried down with the flood, espies the bough of a tree hanging over the river, which he catcheth at, and clings unto with all his might to save him, and sfeeing no other way of succor but that, ventures his life upon it. This man, so soon as he has fastened on this bough, is in a safe condition, though all troubles, ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 23 fears, and terrors are not presently out of his mind, until he comes to himself and sees himself quite out of danger. Then he is sure he is safe, but he was safe before he was sure. Even so it is with a believer. Faith is but the espying of Christ as the only means to save, and the reaching out of the heart to lay hold on him." — Areli- bishop Usher. " The greatest thing that we can desire, next to the glory of God, is our own salvation ; and the sweetest thing we can desire is the assurance of our salvation. In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which in the next life is to be enjoyed. All saints shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth ; some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth." — Joseph Caryl. Want of, a hindrance to the Christian. — " Take for an illustration of this, two English emigrants, and suppose them set down side by side in New Zealand or ' Australia. Give each of them a piece of land to clear and cultivate. Let the portions allotted to them be the same both in quantity and quality. Secure that land to ^ them by every needful legal instrument ; let it be conveyed as freehold to them and theirs forever ; let the conveyance be publicly registered and the property made sure to them by every deed and security that man's ingenuity can devise. " Suppose then that one of them shall set to work to bring liis land into cultivation, and labor at it day after day without intermission or cessation. Suppose in the mean while, that the other be continually leaving his work and going repeatedly to the public registry to ask whether the land is really his own, whether there is not 24 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. some mistake, — whether, after all there is not some fla^ in the legal instrument which conveyed it to him. The one shall never doubt his title, but just work diligently on. The other shall hardly ever feel sure of his title, and spend half his time in going to Sydney or Auckland with needless inquiries about it. Which now of these two men will have made most progress in a year's time ? Who will have done the most for his land, got the great- est breadth of soil under tillage, have the best crops to show, be altogether the most prosperous ? You all know, as well as I do. I need not supply an answer. There can only be one reply. Undivided attention will always attain the greatest success." — Rev. J. Q. Ryle. Inconsistent with sin. — "I would not give one straw for that assurance that siil will not damp. If David had come to me, in his adultery, and had talked to me of his assurance, I should have despised his speech." — John Newton. Begets work. — " As exercise begets health, and by health we are made fit for exercise, so assurance grounded upon the promises, enableth, enlargeth, and increaseth sanctification, and sanctification increaseth assurance." — Clarke s Saint's Nosegay. " Our hope is not hung upon such untwisted thread as ^I imagine so,' or 'It is likely;' but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity ; our salvation is fastened with God's own hand and Christ's own strength to the strong stake of God's unchanging nature." — Rutherford. Latimer writes in his quaint way to Ridley, " When I live in a settled and steadfast assurance about the state ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 25 of my soul, methinks I am as bold as a lion. I cac laugh at all trouble ; no affliction daunts me. But when I am eclipsed in my comforts, I am of so fearful a spirit that I could run into a very mouse-hole." The Eev. Thomas Adams writes (in his Private Thoughts), "I am as sure, on the word and protnise of God, that my sins are done away in Christ, as if an angel were to bring me a release in writing, or I were in heaven out of all danger." BuNYAN well sets forth the worth of assurance, in the pains and trouble it cost Christian, when he lost his roll by sleeping in the arbor. Thus he bewailed his sinful sleep. ** WRETCHED man that I am, that I should sleep in the daytime ; that I should sleep in the midst of difficulty ; that I should so indulge the flesh as to use that rest for ease to my flesh, that the Lord of the hill hath erected only for the relief of the spirits of pilgrims. How many steps have I taken in vain ! Thus it happened to Israel for their sin, they were sent back again by the way of the Red Sea; and I am made to tread those steps with sorrow that I might have trod with delight, had it not been for this sinful sleep. How far might I have been on my way by this time! I am made to tread those steps thrice over, which I needed not to have trode but once : yea, now I am like to be benighted, for the day is almost spent. Oh that I had not slept !" BACKSLIDING. "Apostasy begins at the closet door." — P. Henry. " When a Christian backslides, it is as if the prodigal re-acted his former folly, and left his Father's house a second time." — Dr. Nevins. IS GENERALLY GRADUAL, — hke the ebbing tide^ wave after wave breaks upon the shore at apparently the same point, and it seems impossible to tell, by any two 26 ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. or three separate waves whether it is the 'ebb or flow ; but watch a few minutes, and the outgoing waters soon tel] their own tale. IS A WOUNDING SIN. — There is a breastplate pro- vided for the Christian soldier, but we read of no hack- plate. " Backsliding in heart always leads to legality of spirit. — J. H. Evans. — begins by degrees. The fallen tree. Some time ago two ministers were walking along the banks of a river, when they came to a tree which had been blown down in a re- cent gale. It was a mighty, noble tree, tall and substantial, with large outspreading roots and ample foliage. It must have been the growth of the greater part of a century j and any one who had seen it, would have said there was no cause why it should not have stood a century longer. Approaching to examine it, they found it had been snapped oflf just above the roots; and on looking still closer, found that there was only an outer shell of sound wood, and that the heart was rotten ! Unnoticed, the decay had been going on for years. " Do you know," said Mr. to his companion, " that a tree never breaks off in this way unless there has been previous decay 1" " A very suggestive lesson," was the answer, " for you and me, and for your people and mine. Is it not so with the falls of many of the members of our churches ? Men seldom fall all at once into notori- ous, flagrant sin." The TWO portraits. — If a portrait were taken of a person in strong, vigorous health, and another was taken of the same man after a severe illness, or when he had been almost starved to death, or weakened by confine- ment, we should scarcely recognize them as the likeness of the same man, the dear old friend we loved ! Still greater would be the change, could we draw the spiritual portrait of many a once hearty, vigorous saint of God, whose soul has been starved for want of the proper spir- ILLUSTRATIVE GATHERINGS. 27 itual nourishment, or feeding upon " ashes" instead of bread. " The SYMPTOMS of spiritual decline are like those which attend the decay of bodily health. It generally commences with loss of appetite, and a disrelish for wholesome food, prayer, reading the Scriptures, and de- votional books. Wherever you perceive these symptoms, be alarmed, for your spiritual health is in danger ; apply immediately to the great Physician for a cure." — Dr, Fayson. AwFULNESS OF. — " They fall deepest into hell who fall backwards into hell. None so near heaven as those that are convinced of sin ; none so near hell as those who have quenched conviction." — Bunyan. '^ I CAN certainly testify, after sixteen years' ministry, that by far the most hopeless death-beds I have attended, have been those of backsliders. I have seen such per- sons go out of the world without hope, whose conscience appeared really dead, buried, and gone, and on whom every truth and doctrine and argument appeared alike thrown away. They seemed to have lost the power of feeling, and could only lie still and despair." — Rev. J. a Ryle. The watchmaker's question. " A young man was for several months in a backsliding state, which manifested itself in the usual way of conformity to a fashionable and unholy course of life, and a neglect of the ordinances and institutions