1. By the presence of God, we are sometimes to understand His essential presence or ubiquity, which pervades all matter and space, and without which nothing could exist.

2. There is also the providential presence of God, by which He sees the wants, and provides for the necessities of His numerous family.

3. By the presence of God here is meant His gracious presence which He mercifully condescends to manifest in His house, and to reveal to His people.

4. The gracious presence of God is essentially necessary to His people, in order to show them the right way and enable them to walk therein.

5. The gracious presence of God is indispensable to His people to purify them, and make them ready for the heavenly Canaan. If ever we be made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," it must be "through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth."

II. "I WILL GIVE THEE REST."

1. The rest here mentioned has, undoubtedly, a primary reference to the land of Canaan, in which the people of Israel rested, after the toils, dangers, and fatigue of the wilderness. But then, there is something more implied in the word than this.

2. The people of God enjoy a comparative rest in this present world, inasmuch as they are delivered from the power and pollution of sin, and possess that kingdom of grace which consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

3. But there still remaineth a rest for them beyond the confines of the grave, in the participation of that felicity which is at the right hand of the Most High.

(B. Bailey.)

1. They had come from Egypt. A land of toil and oppression and misery.

2. They were journeying in the wilderness. A land of drought, sterility, and dangers. They had many trials and enemies. A true picture of the world through which believers are travelling.

3. They were travelling to Canaan. A land promised to their fathers; a land of freedom and rest, of plenty and happiness.

II. THE PRESENCE. "My presence shall go with thee." This presence was —

1. Divine.

2. Visible. Pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

3. Efficient. Not merely Divine recognition and observation, but with them to do all for them they required.

4. Continued. "When flesh and heart fail," etc. "This God is our God for ever and ever," etc.

III. THE REST. "And I will give thee rest."

1. The rest of triumph after the conflicts of life.

2. A rest from the toils of wilderness journeyings.

3. A rest from the fears and dangers of the way.

4. A rest from the sufferings and afflictions of life.

5. A rest of eternal and heavenly glory.

(J. Burns, D. D.)

II. While, however, God is constantly present with His own people, THERE ARE CERTAIN TIMES IN WHICH HIS PRESENCE IS SPECIALLY MANIFEST.

III. THE MENTAL STATES WHICH PRECEDE THE GIFT OF GOD'S PRESENCE.

1. Earnest prayer.

2. The spirit of mourning and humiliation.

(D. Macaulay, M. A.)

II. The prayer of Moses suggests THE NEED OF ONE WORN BY WELL-DOING. That well-doing brings exhaustion and despondency and so specially needs God's aid is a fact which we sometimes forget.

III. The prayer of Moses expressed the need of one WEIGHTED BY THE SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY. He had a great work to do. He who feels little need of God has a low sense of personal responsibility. But he who faces all responsibility and tries to see his life as he will see it when the end of all things has come, has great need of God. To him life becomes a serious thing. For help he will often "lift up his eyes unto the hills," and will take help from no lower source.

IV. This prayer of Moses RECEIVED A GRACIOUS ANSWER. It was the vision of God.

(Willard G. Sperry.)

II. THAT IN PROPORTION AS GOD WITHDRAWS THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS PRESENCE FROM HIS PEOPLE, THIS DIFFERENCE AND SEPARATION BETWEEN THEM AND OTHER MEN WILL DIMINISH. God is the Sun of the soul. When He favours it with His presence and exerts upon it His influence, it is enlivened and enlightened, and made to glow with love, and hope, and joy, and gratitude. But when He withdraws and suspends His influences, spiritual darkness and coldness are the consequence. Then it is night, it is winter with the soul. In proportion as He thus withdraws from His people, they cease to view Him as a present reality; they cease to have those views, and to exercise those affections, which constitute the grand essential difference between them and other men. Nor is this all. As holy affections decline, sinful affections revive. It remains only to make a suitable improvement of the subject.

1. With this view, permit me, in the first place, to say to each individual in this assembly, Do you know experimentally the difference between the presence and the absence of God?

2. Let me improve this subject, by inquiring whether this Church now enjoys the peculiar presence of God, as it once appeared to do?

(E. Payson, D. D.)

2. The discourse of the naturalist on his experiments, of the scholar on his books, of the mathematician who is talking with raptures on the beauties of a theorem, will bring things into the presence of initiated listeners, which are still remote from the minds of those in the very same company who have no sympathy with the theme. So, "two women may be grinding at a mill"; "two men may be in the field"; one a believer, the other an unbeliever; and although the Great Spirit is near to them both, there is a sense in which He is present to the one as He is not to the other; for, in the case of the believer, the causes of estrangement have been taken away, a new relation exists, a new life has been born, and God is present as a Friend, whose love has been accepted, and whose conversation is understood with all the intelligence of a kindred nature. Everything we need to secure that peace which the world cannot give is secured by the promise, "My presence shall go with thee," for that tranquil presence does not merely attend us, it enters the very soul, and sheds its benediction there. Plato seemed to have a glimpse of this glorious truth when he said, "God is more inward to us than we are to ourselves." What was to Him a beautiful speculation is to us an inspiring reality; for we are the "temples of the Holy Ghost." He dwells within us as a pitying, purifying friend, to kindle celestial light in our darkness, and by removing the cause of discord, and restoring the equilibrium of the soul, to give us peace at the very seat of life. Ignatius, from his eminent devotion, was called by his companions "The Godbearer"; and when Trajan said to him, "Dost thou then bear the Crucified One in thy heart?" his reply was, "Even so; for it is written, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'" This honour have all the saints, yet all do not seem to be fully conscious of it. Only let us feel it; only let us own that inward authority, and listen to that inward voice; only let us act in obedience to the suggestions of that "Power that worketh within us to will and to do of His good pleasure," and we shall find that in proportion as we are actuated by the life of God within us, shall we feel "His peace."

(C. Stanford, D. D.)

1. The acknowledgment of the people as being peculiarly the Lord's.

2. Preservation and protection.

3. Direction and guidance.

4. Real worship in the wilderness. What is bread, what is wine, and what is the table, if the King Himself be not there?

5. Communion with God. He is always ready for fellowship with His people.

II. WHAT ARE THE DEMANDS OF THIS PRESENCE ?

1. That we rely upon it. Away with fear and melancholy. Treat it as a matter of fact, and be filled with rest.

2. That we use it. Exercise faith in God.

3. Do not lose it. Oh, how reverently, cautiously, jealously, and holily ought we to behave ourselves in the presence of God!

4. Glorify Him all that you possibly can. Seek out those who have lost His company, and go and cheer them.

III. WHAT IS THE CHOICE BLESSING WHICH IS APPENDED TO THIS PRESENCE. "Best" — both now and hereafter.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. HERE ARE TWO WAYS ON WHICH THE CHOICE IS TO BE EXERCISED — TWO PATHS, WHICH VERY PLAINLY DIVERGE. It is the old, old choice — worldliness, godliness — duty, pleasure — God's will, self-will — the passions and appetites of the flesh or of the mind, the convictions of conscience and the Word of God.

II. THE CRY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT FOR REST. The longing of man's spirit amid all these strifes, discords, and confusions, is for rest. Nothing can eradicate man's conviction that strife and discord have no right in the universe; that they are abnormal; that the normal condition of things and beings is harmony, and that harmony is the music of rest. God must rest — rest even in working; and all that is of God and from God has the longing and the tending to rest.

III. THE DIVINE ASSURANCE WHICH WAS TO MOSES, AND SHOULD BE TO US, AN ALL-SUFFICIENT WARRANT TO LEAVE THE WORLD AND THE PLEASURES OF SIN AND COMMIT OURSELVES TO THE DESERT UNDER GOD'S GUIDANCE, AS THE PATH TO THE HEAVENLY REST.

(J. B. Brown, B. A.)

(J. B. Brown, B. A.)

II. THE DESIRE OF THE SPIRITUAL MIND IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD. " If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hither." "Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation."

III. GOD SUPPLIES THIS WANT. "His name shall be called 'God with us.'" "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever." The experience of this presence is a joy to be sought and found only in fidelity to God. It restrains from evil and inspires to good works. It gives rest from the uncertainties suggested by unbelief and doubt. It supplies the happiness of assurance and the calmness of peace.

(E. W. Warren, D. D.)

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES BY WHICH THIS ASSURANCE WAS CALLED FORTH.

1. Moses was a very lonely man. Perhaps more lonely in the midst of the two millions of people whom he was leading as a flock than he had been amid the solitudes of the desert tending the flock of Jethro. The very contrast between his lofty enjoyment of Divine communion and the people, always set on sensual pleasure, must have lent intensity to the isolation of his spirit, which reared itself amid their sensual longings, as the peak of Susafeh above the lower ranges of Sinai. In this his loneliness he has been compared to Elijah at Cherith or on Carmel; to Paul standing aged and friendless before the tribunal of Nero; to Alfred when, in the words of the old chronicler, he " lived an unquiet life in the woodlands of Somerset"; to Columbus when, with his great secret locked in his heart, he still prosecuted his quest over the weary waste of waters. Jesus was the most lonely man that ever lived. He drank the cup of loneliness to its dregs. And Moses said unto the Lord, "See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and Thou has not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me." Note that last clause, "whom Thou wilt send with me." Do they not contain a sigh for a comrade, a companion, a friend in whose sympathy and judgment he might confide. In the physical world we are told that in the most solid bodies the atoms do not touch; and how often, though the crowd throngs us, we are not conscious that any one has touched us. It is to that state of mind that the assurance of the text is given.

2. In addition to this, the hosts were soon to leave the mountain region of Sinai, with which Moses had been familiar during his shepherd life, in order to take the onward road through unknown deserts, infested by daring and experienced foes. Such a summons to arise and depart is often sounding with its bugle-call in our ears. We are not like those who travel by the metal track of the railroad, on which they have been to and fro every day for years, and are able to tell exactly the names and order of the stations; but like an exploring expedition in an absolutely unknown district, and even the leader, as he leaves his hammock in the morning, does not know where it will be slung at night.

3. Still further difficulties had lately arisen in connection with the people's transgression. From a careful study of the passage it would seem that a change was proposed by their Almighty Friend. Hitherto He had gone in the midst of them. Now He avowed His intention of substituting an angel for Himself, lest He should suddenly consume the people because of their stiff-neckedness (Exodus 33:3). But now it seemed likely some sensible diminution of the evidence of the Divine presence and favour was about to take place; and the fear of this stirred the soul of the great leader to its depths. Are there not times with many of us when we have reason to fear that, in consequence of some sad failure or sin on our part, the Lord may be obliged to withdraw the conscious enjoyment of His love? Supposing He should be compelled to leave me to myself, to withdraw His tender mercies, to shut up His compassions. Supposing that I should be like a sledge abandoned in Arctic snows, or a ship abandoned by its crew in mid-ocean.

II. THE PLACE WHERE THIS ASSURANCE WAS GIVEN. The earlier intercourse between the servant, faithful in all his house, and Him who had appointed him seems to have been on the mountain summit. But after the outburst of the people's sin a change was made which did not necessitate such prolonged or distant absences from the camp. Indeed, he was absent for only one other period of forty days till the time of his death, some thirty-eight years afterwards (Exodus 34:28). During the prolonged interview which he had been permitted to enjoy, God had spoken to him much of the Tabernacle which was shortly to be reared. He at once saw the blessedness of this proximity of the shrine for worship and fellowship, and his ardent soul seems to have been unable to brook delay. It was no longer necessary for him to climb to the mountain summit, entrusted with errands on behalf of the people, or eager for advice in difficult problems. He was able to transact all necessary business by going out to the tent. Thus the Lord spake with Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and Moses spake to his Father, who is in secret, with the freedom of a child. And as the people beheld that wondrous sight of God stooping to commune with man, they rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. It was as if he said, Wilt Thou Thyself be my Comrade and Companion, my Referee in difficulty, my Adviser in perplexity, my Friend in solitude? Thine angels are strong and fair and good, but none of them will suffice me, nothing short of Thyself. Without Thee, it were better for me to relinquish my task and die; but with Thee, no difficulty can baffle, no fear alarm, no obstacle deter. And God's answer came back on his spirit with music and balm, "My presence shall go with time, and I will give thee rest." Nothing was said as to the people. But faith gets bolder as it mounts. Each answer to its claims makes it claim more. We may seriously question whether our faith is of the right quality if it is unable to compass more in its hand to-day than it did a year ago. And, therefore, Moses not only took the assurance of the Divine presence for himself, but asked that it be extended to include the people. "Wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? Is it not that Thou goest with us, so that we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." In this respect also he was successful. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in My sight. There are moments of holy intercourse with God, rapturous, golden moments, in the lives of all His servants; when next they visit us, and we would make the most of their brief, bright, rapturous glow, let us plead, not only for ourselves, but for others, asking for them an equal blessedness.

III. THE BLESSEDNESS WHICH THIS ASSURANCE GUARANTEED. There was, first, the Divine presence; and there was, secondly, the premised rest; not the rest of Canaan, for this Moses never saw, but a deeper and more blessed inheritance, which may be the portion of all faithful souls. But at their heart these two are one. The Divine presence is rest. Of course the conscious presence of God with us is only possible on three conditions. Firstly, we must walk in the light, as He is in the light, for He will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, or turn aside to go with us on any crooked path of our own choosing. Secondly, we must recognize that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son goes on cleansing us from all sin, not only that which we judge and confess, but that also which is only seen by His pure and holy eyes. Thirdly, we must claim the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit to make real that presence, which is too subtle for the eye of man, unless it be specially enlightened. And, above all, we must remember that for us, at least, that presence is localized in the man Christ Jesus. For us there is no attenuated mist of presence, though a mist of light, but a Person in whom that presence is made real and touches us.

1. God's presence is rest from the conscience of sin. "I will remember their sins no more."

2. God's presence is rest from anxiety. The future is dim. and we are apt to strain our eyes as we peer into its depths. Now we are elate with building castles of light, and again we are immured in dungeons of foreboding. We cannot rest tossed to and fro like this, but when we can look from the mist to the face of our Guide, who goes with us, such wisdom and kindness mingle there that we are at rest.

3. God's presence gives rest to our intellect. The mind of man turns sick before the trifles and frivolities with which men, for the most part, seek to satisfy its insatiable appetite, and craves eternal truth, and this alone can be found in God.

4. God's presence is rest to our judgment. This regal faculty is constantly being called into play to select out of one or two paths which offer themselves that which we should follow. It is left for Him to choose, and to make known His choice, whilst the soul waits, exercising careful thought indeed, but concentrating its whole power in seeking to know the Divine will.

5. God's presence is rest to our will. The will of the self-life, which chafes like an unquiet sea, can only come to rest in the will of God, compelled by the powerful attraction of His near presence, just as we might conceive of a body passing from the earth to the sun, increasingly losing the attraction of the planet as it feels the pull of the mighty orb of day.

6. God's presence is rest from weariness. There is in each of us a fund of natural energy, determined largely by health or temperament, or favourable circumstances. But at times this is crushed by disappointment and failure, and the sense of its inadequacy for some great task. But when God is near it falls back on Him like a tired child on a father's strength, and is at rest.

7. God's presence is rest to our heart. Who is there that does not pine for love? But to know God, to love God, to be loved by God, to delight in God's perpetual presence — this is rest. I have a vision of a woodland glade. A group of tired, frightened children are cowering around the bole of an old tree, dropping the fragile, withered flowers from their hands and pinafores, as the first great drops of the thunder shower, which had been darkening the sky, begin to fall. They have lost their way, they sob bitterly, and crowd together. Suddenly through the wood there comes a quick step, beneath which the twigs crackle and break — father has come, and as he carries some in his strong arms through the storm on the nearest track for home, and the others run at his side, they have learnt that there is a presence which is rest.

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

     1255   face of God
     2227   Immanuel
     3040   Holy Spirit, promise of
     5057   rest, physical
     5058   rest, spiritual
     5102   Moses, life of
     5467   promises, divine
     5933   restlessness
     7922   fellowship, with God

Exodus 33:12-16

     8128   guidance, receiving
     8653   importunity, to God

Exodus 33:12-17

     8130   guidance, from godly people

Exodus 33:12-23

     8112   certainty

June the Seventeenth the Invisible Presence
"Show me Thy glory." --EXODUS xxxiii. 12-23. Moses wist not what he asked. His speech was beyond his knowledge. The answer to his request would have consumed him. He asked for the blazing noon when as yet he could only bear the quiet shining of the dawn. The good Lord lets in the light as our eyes are able to bear it. The revelation is tempered to our growth. The pilgrim could bear a brightness in Beulah land that he could not have borne at the wicket-gate; and the brilliance of the entry into …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls
However, whether we all of us agree to the doctrine that God is sovereign or not, is a very little matter to him, for he is so. De jure, by right, he should be so; de facto, as matter of fact, he is so. It is a fact, concerning which you have only to open your eyes and see that God acts as a sovereign in the dispensation of his grace. Our Saviour, when he wished to quote instances of this, spake on this wise: many widows there were in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet, but unto none of these …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

A view of God's Glory
THAT WAS A large request to make. He could not have asked for more: "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." Why, it is the greatest petition that man ever asked of God. It seems to me the greatest stretch of faith that I have either heard or read of. It was great faith which made Abraham go into the plain to offer up intercession for a guilty city like Sodom. It was vast faith which enabled Jacob to grasp the angel; it was mighty faith which enabled Elijah to rend the heavens and fetch down rain from …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 54: 1908

Of the Way to Attain Divine Union
Of the way to attain Divine Union It is impossible to attain Divine Union solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by the highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:-- First, According to Scripture "no man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contemplation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

After the Preceding Ways, There Remains an after Way, Preparatory to Divine Union, in which Wisdom and Justice Make the Passive Purification of the Soul, All
It is impossible to attain divine union by the way of meditation alone, or even by the affections, or by any luminous or understood prayer. There are several reasons. These are the principal. First, according to Scripture, "No man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all discursive exercises of prayer, or even of active contemplation, regarded as an end, and not as a preparation for the passive, are exercises of life by which we cannot see God, that is, become united to Him. All that …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Let us Now Examine the Conditions under which a Revelation May be Expected To...
2. Let us now examine the conditions under which a revelation may be expected to be given to the original recipients. It may be observed in the first place that a revelation must possess some distinctive character. Even, if it should turn out that there is no such thing in reality at all, at least the notion which we form in our minds must possess such points of difference as to distinguish it from all other notions. It appears needful to bear this in mind, obvious though it is, because there …
Samuel John Jerram—Thoughts on a Revelation

Whence Also the Just of Old, Before the Incarnation of the Word...
18. Whence also the just of old, before the Incarnation of the Word, in this faith of Christ, and in this true righteousness, (which thing Christ is unto us,) were justified; believing this to come which we believe come: and they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God, not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up. [2679] For their good works did not come before God's mercy, but followed it. For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere …
St. Augustine—On Patience

Ninteenth Lesson. I Go unto the Father!'
I go unto the Father!' Or, Power for Praying and Working. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do.'--John xiv. 12, 13. AS the Saviour opened His public ministry with His disciples by the Sermon on the Mount, so He closes it by the Parting Address preserved to us by John. In both He speaks more than once of prayer. …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

The Blessed Privilege of Seeing God Explained
They shall see God. Matthew 5:8 These words are linked to the former and they are a great incentive to heart-purity. The pure heart shall see the pure God. There is a double sight which the saints have of God. 1 In this life; that is, spiritually by the eye of faith. Faith sees God's glorious attributes in the glass of his Word. Faith beholds him showing forth himself through the lattice of his ordinances. Thus Moses saw him who was invisible (Hebrews 11:27). Believers see God's glory as it were …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Moses the Type of Christ.
"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken."--Deut. xviii. 15. The history of Moses is valuable to Christians, not only as giving us a pattern of fidelity towards God, of great firmness, and great meekness, but also as affording us a type or figure of our Saviour Christ. No prophet arose in Israel like Moses, till Christ came, when the promise in the text was fulfilled--"The Lord thy God," says Moses, "shall …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Wonderful.
Isaiah ix:6. HIS name shall be called "Wonderful" (Isaiah ix:6). And long before Isaiah had uttered this divine prediction the angel of the Lord had announced his name to be Wonderful. As such He appeared to Manoah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Him "why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is Wonderful" (margin, Judges xiii:17-18). This angel of Jehovah, the Person who …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

Appendix viii. Rabbinic Traditions About Elijah, the Forerunner of the Messiah
To complete the evidence, presented in the text, as to the essential difference between the teaching of the ancient Synagogue about the Forerunner of the Messiah' and the history and mission of John the Baptist, as described in the New Testaments, we subjoin a full, though condensed, account of the earlier Rabbinic traditions about Elijah. Opinions differ as to the descent and birthplace of Elijah. According to some, he was from the land of Gilead (Bemid. R. 14), and of the tribe of Gad (Tanch. on …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Epistle xxviii. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli .
To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli [136] . Gregory to Augustine, &c. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke ii. 14); because a grain of wheat, falling into the earth, has died, that it might not reign in heaven alone; even He by whose death we live, by whose weakness we are made strong, by whose suffering we are rescued from suffering, through whose love we seek in Britain for brethren whom we knew not, by whose gift we find those whom without knowing them we sought. …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Personality of Power.
A Personally Conducted Journey. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of travel; but nearly all shrink back from its tiresomeness and drudgery. The transportation companies are constantly scheming to overcome this disagreeable side for both pleasure and business travel. One of the popular ways of pleasure travel of late is by means of personally conducted tours. A party is formed, often by the railroad company, and is accompanied by a special agent to attend to all the business matters of the trip. A variation …
S.D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on Power

An Exposition on the First Ten Chapters of Genesis, and Part of the Eleventh
An unfinished commentary on the Bible, found among the author's papers after his death, in his own handwriting; and published in 1691, by Charles Doe, in a folio volume of the works of John Bunyan. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR Being in company with an enlightened society of Protestant dissenters of the Baptist denomination, I observed to a doctor of divinity, who was advancing towards his seventieth year, that my time had been delightfully engaged with John Bunyan's commentary on Genesis. "What," …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Great Commission Given.
(Time and Place Same as Last Section.) ^A Matt. XXVIII. 18-20; ^B Mark XVI. 15-18; ^C Luke XXIV. 46, 47. ^a 18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. ^b 15 And he said unto them, Go ye ^a therefore, ^b into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. ^a and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Covenanting a Privilege of Believers.
Whatever attainment is made by any as distinguished from the wicked, or whatever gracious benefit is enjoyed, is a spiritual privilege. Adoption into the family of God is of this character. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (margin, or, the right; or, privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."[617] And every co-ordinate benefit is essentially so likewise. The evidence besides, that Covenanting …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Winsome Jesus.
The Face of Jesus: Jesus drew crowds, men, women, children, bad people, enemies--His personality--face--impress of experiences--the glory of God in that face, 2 Corinthians 4:6. Hebrews 1:3. The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus: the eye--Jesus' eyes, Luke 4:16-30. John 8:59. 10:31. 7:32, 45, 46. 18:6. Mark 10:32. 9:36. 10:13-16. Luke 19:48.--His voice, Matthew 26:30. personal touch, Matthew 8:3, 15. 9:29. 17:7. 20:34. Mark 1:41. 7:33. Luke 5:13. 22:51. (John 14:16-20). His presence irresistible. …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.
The New Testament distinguishes between the hidden God and the revealed God--the Son or Logos--who is connected with the former by oneness of nature, and who from everlasting, and even at the creation itself, filled up the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creation;--who has been the Mediator in all God's relations to the world;--who at all times, and even before He became man in Christ, has been the light of [Pg 116] the world,--and to whom, specially, was committed the direction …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Jesus Calls Four Fishermen to Follow Him.
(Sea of Galilee, Near Capernaum.) ^A Matt. IV. 18-22; ^B Mark I. 16-20; ^C Luke V. 1-11. ^a 18 And walking ^b 16 And passing along by the sea of Galilee [This lake is a pear-shaped body of water, about twelve and a half miles long and about seven miles across at its widest place. It is 682 feet below sea level; its waters are fresh, clear and abounding in fish, and it is surrounded by hills and mountains, which rise from 600 to 1,000 feet above it. Its greatest depth is about 165 feet], he [Jesus] …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity