483 / 652
sicr.
tr.?
IN REGARD
OF
GOD.
473
for
the
most
formidable enemy
:
"
My
grace,
O
Paul,
is
sufficient
for thee
against the thorns
of
the
flesh,
and the
buffets
of Satan."
The
rich gospel
of
grace
was
only made for the
poor
and
the
humble among the
sons
and daughters
of
Adam
For
whom
is
all
that
fulness
of
righteousness and
fulness
of
grace treasured
up
in
Christ Jesus, but
for
those
who
are
deeply abased tinder a
sense
of
their
own
guilt
and
sinfulness
?
It
is
for
those
who
are
dying
and despairing
in themselves
that
Jesus
has
brought
in
hope ,and
life.
We
can never
be
christians
till
we
are
thus humbled
and
brought
to
the foot
of
God
to
receive
all
from his
Son.
Remember, O
my soul,
it
is
this
self=poverty,
this emp
-'
tiness and
dependence
makes
thee
a
prepared
vessel
for
the largest communications of
divine influence and
blesr
sing.
Jesus,
the
Son
of
God,
came down from heaven
furnished with
all fulness
of
heavenly graces, to bestow
only upon
the
poor and needy and
the
depending
creature.
He
was
sent
to feed the hungry,
to clothe the naked, to
heal the
sick, to give
sight to the
blind,
to bestow wisdom
upon the ignorant, to
preach
the gospel to the poor,
and
to
call sinners to
repentance
and
salvation
:
but the self
-
righteous
and
the
wise,
and the
exalted
"haughty things
of
this world, he
hath
no blessings for them, for they
are
all
full
of
themselves,
they
do
not
feel
nor imagine
that
they have any need
of
his
bounty.
The doctrines and
benefits
of
his
gospel
are
hid from
the
wise,
and the
mighty,
and the
sons
of
pride
;
but
they
are
revealed
to
babes and
conferred
on the poor.
The
humble soul
dwells
nearest
to
the
rich
treasures of
grace, and
the
empty
vessel
is
best
prepared
to
receive the largest com-
munications.
What
is
it then, O
my
heart,
that
should
tempt
thee to
maintain
high
thoughts
of
thyself,
of
thy
own
understand
-
ing,
of
thy
own sufficiency,
when
it
is
the ready
way
to
exclude
thee from all the aids
of
divine
grace
?
He bath
filled
the
hungry
with
good
things,
but
the
rich
he
bath
sent
empty
away;
Luke
i.
53.
God resisteth the
proud,.
but
giveth
more
grace
unto
the
humble
:
James
iv.
6.
11.-
When
we
have
low
thoughts
of
ourselves,
our
hearts
and
lips
will
be full
of
acknowledgments for the
daily
favours
of grace
and
providence.
We
shall
bake
notice
of
every favourable dispensation
that
attends
us,