The Better Land

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE AUTUMN. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.?Fs. xcil. 14,15. T OOK at the aged disciple, the devout, the sincere, the humble follower of Jesus; he has entered life's autumn, and, like the aged palm in the east, with its coronet of rich ripe fruit, stands a witness of God's faithfulness, a proof of the power of grace, and an evidence of the excellency of real religion. The Spirit of God has long dwelt in his heart, the word has wrought effectually in him, and now the ripe fruits of the Spirit appear. There is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. But the Christian, when in an advanced state of grace, never admires his own fruit; he sees his defects and mourns over them, and like the full ears of ripe corn, his head is bowed down in humility and self-renunciation before God. THE AUTUMN. The young professor may rejoice in what he is, in what he has, or in what he has done; not so the aged saint; though laden with fruit, he rejoices only in Christ Jesus; if he glories, it is only in the Lord. In his life he has been useful to others, he has fruit in souls converted to God through his instrumentality, perhaps in children educated in the truth of God, in saints comforted, and backsliders restored. He has not lived in vain. He has left traces of usefulness behind him. But all is renounced when he looks into eternity; he says, I am a sinner, saved by grace;' I owe everything to mercy; I ascribe everything to Jesus. This is my rejoicing, that my God is my Saviour, and my Saviour is my God. Christ in his person, Christ in his work, Christ in his glory, is th...