1. Bowed down with a peculiar grief. Inward sorrow. True repentance.

2. Well-founded sorrow. Over guilt, outrage on God's goodness and grace.

3. Humble sorrow. Not excusing or flattering himself, or making new resolutions; but "bemoaning."

4. A thoughtful sorrow.

5. A hopeless yet a hopeful sorrow.

II. THE LORD OBSERVING HIM.

1. God heard all Ephraim had to say. It may be but a stammering cry. Broken prayers are the best.

2. God delights in the broken and contrite spirit.

3. God is full of compassion.

III. THE LORD WORKING IN HIS EFFECTUAL GRACE.

1. The only turning in the world that is saving and Divine, is the turning of the heart.

2. The Lord's way of turning men varies in each case.

(1)A distinct sight of wrath to come stops a sinner.

(2)Or the awakened conscience is led to see the real nature of sin.

(3)The grand turning-point is the sight of Christ on the Cross.

(4)One of the most blessed ways by which God makes a sinner turn is, He manifests His everlasting love to him.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)

I. First, here is MAN AT THE TURNING-POINT AS GOD OBSERVES HIM. Is not that a wonderful word of the Lord, "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself"? Of a certainty the Lord hears all the sorrowful voices of men. The Lord hears "surely": that is to say, He hears the sense and meaning of our wordless moans: He puts into language that which no words of ours could express. The Lord understands us better than we understand ourselves.

1. Concerning the man here described, we note that he is in a state of great sorrow about himself. The grief is within. All the water outside the ship is of small account; it is when the leak admits the water to the hold that there is danger. "Let not your heart be troubled": it matters something if your country or your house be troubled; but to you the trying matter is if your heart be troubled. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?" This is what the Lord tenderly notes about the sinner at the turning-point, that he bemoans himself.

2. This bemoaning was addressed to his God. This is a very hopeful point about it: he cried to Jehovah, "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised." It is a blessed thing when a man in his distress turns to his God, and not from Him.

3. Notice how Ephraim in the text has spied out his God as having long ago dealt with him. He tells the Lord that He has chastised him. "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised." The man had not before observed the hand of God in his suffering: but he does now. I have hope of that man who sees God's hand, even though he sees only a rod in it.

4. But the mourner in our text means more than this by his bemoanings: he owns that the chastening had not set him right. "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised"; and that was all. He had smarted, but he had not submitted. He had not obeyed, but had still further rebelled.

5. Yet there is something better than this; the mourner in our text despairs of all but God. He cannot turn himself, and chastisement will not turn him; he has no hope left but for God Himself to interpose. "Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned."

6. To all this confession poor bemoaning Ephraim adds another word, whereby he submits to the supreme sway of Jehovah his God, "For Thou art the Lord my God." He does as good as say, Man cannot help me. I cannot help myself. Even Thy chastenings have not availed to turn me. Lord, I appeal to Thee, Thyself! Thou art Jehovah. Thou canst do all things. Thou art my God, for Thou hast made me; and therefore Thou canst new-make me. I pray Thee, therefore, exercise Thine own power, and renew Thy poor, broken and defiled creature.

II. MAN AFTER THE TURNING-POINT. Here you have the description in the nineteenth verse. It begins with "Surely." Is it not very remarkable that each of these verses should be stamped with the hall-mark, and each one bear the word "surely"? The Lord said He had "surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself"; and here Ephraim says, Surely after that I was turned, I repented."

1. See, before us, prayer mixed with faith soon answered. Not many moments after Ephraim had said, "Thou art the Lord my God," he felt that he was turned. My friend, do you remember when you were turned? Do you know your spiritual birthday, and the spot of ground where Jesus unveiled His face to you? Some of us do, although others do not. The main point is to be turned; to know the place and time is a secondary matter.

2. Yet I say some of us know when we were turned; and here is one reason why we remember it, for repentance came with turning. "After that I was turned, I repented." He that is truly turned turns his face to the wall to weep and pray. Thou canst not make thyself repent; but when God hath changed thy heart, thou wilt repent as naturally as the brook flows adown the valley when once its bands of ice are thawed. "After that I was turned, I repented."

3. Deep sorrow followed upon further instruction. The Holy Spirit does not leave the convert, but gives him further instruction; and out of that comes a sorer regret, a more complete self-abasement. "After that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh." Want of knowledge tends to make men hardened, unfeeling, self-complacent, and proud; but when they are instructed by the Divine Spirit, then they are ready to inflict wounds upon themselves as worthy of buffetings and blows. "God be merciful to me, a sinner" is a fit prayer for the instructed, and the lowliest posture well becomes such a one.

4. To this deep sorrow there followed shame. Ephraim says, "I was ashamed, yea, even confounded." This man knew everything before; now he knows nothing, but is confounded. Once he could dispute, and dispute, and dispute; but now he stands silent before his Judge. He stands like a convicted felon, who, when he is asked by the judge if he has anything to say in stay of sentence, lays his hand on his mouth, and, blushing scarlet, confesses by his silence that he deserves to die. This is the man with whom mercy can work her will.

5. Lastly on this point, memory now comes in, and revives the reproach of youth Memory is a very terrible torture to a guilty heart. "Son, remember!" is one of the voices heard in hell. "I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." I can only compare the sinner with a quickened memory to one who is travelling across the plains of Russia dreaming in his carriage, and on a sudden he is aroused by the sharp bark of a wolf behind him; and this is followed up by a thousand cruel voices of brutes, hungry, and gaunt, and grim, all eager for his blood. Hearken to the patter of those eager feet I the howls of those hungry demons! Whence came they? You thought that your .sins were dead long ago, and quite forgotten. See, they have left their tombs! They are on your track. Like wolves, your old sins are pursuing you. They rest not day nor night. They prepare their teeth to tear you. Whither will you flee? How can you escape the consequences of the past? They are upon you, these monsters, their hot breath is in your face; who can now save you? Only a miracle can rescue you from the reproach of your youth; will that miracle be wrought? May we dare to look for it? We have something better than a mere hope to set before you. Jesus meets these packs of wolfish sins. He interposes between us and them! He drives them back! He scatters them! There is not one of them left!

III. Now we will turn, and HEAR GOD AT THIS TURNING-POINT. "Is Ephraim My dear son? is he a pleasant child?" Does this look like a question? The answer has been already given in the ninth verse: "I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn." The gracious Lord sees Ephraim sore with chastisement, spent with weeping, pale with shame, and moaning with agony, and then his sonship is acknowledged. He bends over the crushed one, and cries, "This is My son. This is My dear child." How gracious on God's part to acknowledge the guilty rebel as a son! See here is love acknowledging the object of its choice, love confessing its near relationship to one most unworthy and most sorrowful. Then behold the same love well pleased. The Lord does not merely say, "Ephraim is My son; yea, he is My child"; but He calls him "My dear son, a pleasant child." A pleasant child! Why, he has been full of rebellion from his birth! Yes; but he confesses it, and mourns it; and he is a pleasant child when so much holy sorrow is seen in him. Love takes delight in repenting sinners. Notice, in this case, love in earnest. The Lord says, "Since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still" God in earnest — that is a great conception! God in earnest over one moaning sinner! God earnest in thoughts of love, even when He bids the preacher tell the offender of the wrath to come. Notice, next, love in sympathy. Ephraim is bemoaning himself, and what is the Lord doing? He says, "My bowels are troubled for him." God's heart is wounded when our hearts are broken. Then comes love in action: "I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." I am so glad to think that the "surely" is found again in this place. "Surely" God heard Ephraim bemoaning; "Surely" he said that he was turned, and now God says, "Surely I will have mercy upon him." The Lord God puts His hand and seal to it.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(Bp. Sanderson.)

1. Inefficacy of former corrections.

2. Though corrections are calculated to produce amendment, it is evident, from observation and experience, they often fail in accomplishing the effect.

3. Ephraim is here represented as reflecting upon it. (Proximate causes of the inefficacy of correction by itself.)

4. Inattention to the hand of God, and, as a natural consequence, their neglecting to pass from the contemplation of their sufferings to their sins. Religion begins with consideration.

5. In the serious purpose of a religious life, formed under afflictive dispensations, too many depend entirely upon resolutions formed in their own strength. To such purposes may be applied the beautiful image of Nahum: "And as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known."

II. THE PRAYER.

1. The plea of necessity. There is no other resource.

2. To entreat God to turn is not to ask an impossibility. The residue of the Spirit is with Him.

3. It is worthy of His interposition. The turning of the heart is a fit occasion on which Omnipotence may act.

4. The plea may be enforced by precedents. It implies no departure from His known methods.

5. We may force it by a reference to the Divine mercy.

(Robert Hall, M. A.)

1. He reflects on his misimprovement of the dealings of God with him.

2. He prays for converting grace.

3. He describes the working of his mind.

4. He assigns special prominence to his youthful sins.

II. THE ADDRESS OF GOD TO HIM.

1. He owns him as a son.

2. He declares that he has a place in His memory.

3. He expresses His sympathy with him.

4. He promises him mercy.

(G. Brooks.)

1. This truth approves itself to our reason. It follows from the fact of His sustaining care over the world, as necessary for its provision: for all created things depend on Him; they could do nothing without His permission.

2. This truth is further confirmed by the consideration of the meritorious cause of affliction, which is sin. For sin is originally committed against God: it violates His law, contemns His authority, and despises alike His favour and HIS frown. Who, then, is to dispense affliction as the punishment of sin, but He who is its supreme avenger?

3. This is a truth, which when once confirmed by our reason, is recognised throughout Scripture. There you find that the afflictions of the children of men are dispensed to them in number and in measure.

II. THE DESIGNS OF GOD IN AFFLICTIONS ARE VERY MERCIFUL AND BENEFICENT. Afflictions never sow the seed of religion in the soul; they cannot do this: but they may soften the soil to receive it, and subserve the growth and the expansion of the seed when sown. They are lessons of instruction to the mind through the senses; corroborating those lessons of truth from revelation to the mind alone; and which are responded to by the conscience.

1. Afflictions are to bring men to become the people of God.(1) That this is their design will appear from their nature. For what is the obvious drift of that disappointment through the whole course of life, in finding happiness from the world — what is the drift of it but to cure us of that mistake, to direct our attention from that object, and to lead us to Him in whose favour is life? What is the apparent design of certain miserable effects to certain sins, but to breed in us remorse for those sins, and wean us from them? Again, what is the obvious design of those particular evils that belong to our individual condition? What are they, what can they be, but a thorn planted in our earthly nest, to make us arise and go out of it, and seek for happiness in some higher quarter?(2) That such is their design, is evident from the result of them in many cases.

2. When men become the people of God, afflictions do not cease; on the contrary, there are new reasons for the continuance of the former ones, and even for the addition of others to them. But these reasons are all wise and good, and the ends they have in view are so benign and gracious, as far more than to reconcile us to them.(1) They are to prevent them from degenerating, so as to settle in a state of declension and backsliding from God. And this they do by bringing their sins to their remembrance in a timely way, before they can make head against them.(2) They are employed to recover man from a state of backsliding.

(J. Leifchild.)

I. HUMAN LIFE IS ESTABLISHED UPON A DISCIPLINARY BASIS. There is a "yoke" everywhere — in sin, in repentance, in grace. No one can have everything just as he wants it. Man is made to feel that there is somebody in the world besides himself. We are made to feel that our very life is a vapour, and that every respiration is but a compromise with death. We should ask ourselves the meaning of these things. Discipline touches the whole scheme: boy at school, going from home, bodily affliction, oversights and miscalculations, losses, &c.

II. THE VALUE OF DISCIPLINE DEPENDS UPON ITS RIGHT ACCEPTANCE.

1. We may become desperate under it: "as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke." Men may mourn, complain, rebel; they start arguments against God; they justify themselves; they become lost in secondary, agencies and incomplete details.

2. Then there is a better way. "Ephraim bemoaned himself," repented before God, and said, "Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned." In this state of mind see —

(1)Self-renunciation.

(2)Devout and joyful confidence in God's sovereignty and graciousness.Application —

1. There is a yoke in sin. "The way of transgressors is hard."

2. There is a yoke in goodness. It is often difficult to be upright, noble, holy.

3. God helps the true yoke-bearer. We must bear a yoke; say, shall it be the bad yoke, or the yoke of Jesus Christ?

(J. Parker, D. D.)

1. That the affliction is from the Lord.(1) It is this circumstance — this perception of God, as connected with affliction — which imparts to the afflicted an air of something more than solemnity and seriousness, as if the man had sustained a loss — were deprived of what was agreeable to him. It invests him, in some measure, with a character which inspires awe. He knows that God has been dealing with him. And yet, on this part of my subject, let me offer a word of counsel to the people of God. It is true that you believe that all afflictions come from the Lord.(2) Beware of resting satisfied with this as a part of your creed. Take care lest you do no more than in words acknowledge that the Lord is the author of your trouble.

2. That there is a necessity for improvement. This is the direction which the gracious soul takes, when its afflictions are in the way of being sanctified. It is submissive: it cannot question the act of the Lord: it is solemnised. But it is more than all this. There is a disposition and desire to make the dispensation an instrument of spiritual benefit and glory to God. To this spirit and exercise believers are brought by several considerations.(1) That the Lord does nothing in vain.(2) That this is the declared purpose of the Lord in the visitations of trouble. He calls His afflictions chastenings.(3) That improvement and reformation have been the effects produced by chastisement upon many.(4) There is a felt necessity for improvement, as well as experience derived from affliction in the past.

II. SOME OF THE USES OF SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION.

1. Thus do believers become intimately acquainted with their God. God is then set before them in various aspects.

(1)In the character of a Sovereign.

(2)In the character of a Comforter.

2. Believers, when in affliction, know experimentally the value of their Saviour.

3. By affliction believers are weaned from the world. This is the result of their consideration of the Lord's dealings with them, and the work of His Spirit in them. Affliction of itself will not wean us from the world. Some it only glues more closely to that which is left. But when the solemn question upon a trial or a bereavement is, "What meaneth the Lord by this?" the effect is necessarily happy and useful. The meditation leads to the conclusion, that these objects we have lost are but creatures — that as creatures they must be regarded — and that God must have the first place in our affections and hearts.

4. By affliction believers are quickened in the performance of duties.(1) They are quickened in the duties which they owe peculiarly to God.(a) They are quickened so as to be more serious and frequent in their thoughts of God.(b) They are quickened so as to inquire after Him in His Word.(c) They are quickened in prayer. They pray after another fashion. They pray as the needy to the God who hears.(2) They are quickened in their duties to others. Sanctified affliction creates a tender feeling for others.

(J. Thorburn.)

II. A PRAYER FOR DIVINE HELP. There is no hope for the sinner but in God. The more absolute seems our own helplessness the more earnestly must we cry to Him. God requireth that "we do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with Him"; but He must give what He asks.

III. AN ALL-PREVAILING PLEA. "For Thou art the Lord my God." Our confident appeal is to God's own nature as revealed by His Word, and with so much the more assurance as His revelation is now more perfect (Hebrews 1:1-4). In Christ crucified and risen is the supreme unfolding of God's heart. As we look at Him we learn godly sorrow for sin, and heart-trust in the abundance of the Divine pardon, while we are quickened with His life given for us, and kindled by the flame of His love.

(C. M. Hardy, B. A.)

II. THE NEW VIEWS AND FEELINGS WHICH, THROUGH DIVINE GRACE, HIS AFFLICTIONS WERE INSTRUMENTAL IT PRODUCING.

1. We here find the once stubborn and rebellious, but now awakened sinner deeply convinced of his guilt and sinfulness, and deploring his unhappy situation. He still complains indeed, but it is of himself and not of God. He acknowledges the goodness, condescension, and justice of God in correcting him. Perhaps more are convinced of sin, and brought to repentance, by reflecting on their impious, unreconciled feelings under affliction, than by reflecting on any other part of their sinful exercises.

2. We find this awakened, afflicted sinner praying. Convinced of his wretched situation, and feeling his need of Divine aid, he humbly seeks it from his offended God.

3. We find this corrected, mourning, praying sinner reflecting upon the effects of Divine grace in his conversion. Surely, says he, after I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. It is worthy of remark, my friends, how soon the answer followed the prayer. In one verse, we find Ephraim calling God to turn or convert him. In the very next, we find him reflecting upon his conversion and rejoicing in it. And what were the effects of this change, thus suddenly produced by Divine grace? The first was repentance. The second was self-loathing and abhorrence.

III. A CORRECTING, BUT PASSIONATE AND PARDONING GOD, watching the result of His corrections, and noticing the first symptoms of repentance, and expressing His gracious purposes of mercy respecting the chastened, penitent sinner. In this description God represents Himself —

1. As a tender father solicitously mindful of his penitent, afflicted child.

2. As listening to his complaints, confessions, and petitions. Certainly nothing in heaven or earth is so wonderful as this; and if this language does not affect us and break our hearts, nothing can do it.

3. God declares His determination to pardon him: I will surely have mercy upon him.

(E. Payson, D. D.)

II. THE ONLY SPRING FROM WHENCE THIS AMAZING CHANGE DOTH ALWAYS PROCEED. "Surely after that I was turned, I repented." Grace first enters the heart, before it can be discovered in the life and conversation. The God of all grace first of all draws us, or else we shall never move towards Him (John 6:44). Had not the same mighty power which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, been exerted toward us, we should still have continued in the same conversation which we had in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. But quickening grace opens the way to godly sorrow, and this always issues in evangelical repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).

III. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF THIS GREAT WORK IN THE HAND CF THE SPIRIT; WHEREIN THE TRUE NATURE OF REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE IS CLEARLY DESCRIBED.

I. What are the things in which the soul is instructed by the Spirit, when a principle of grace is wrought in the heart?(1) The Spirit begins His work, with leading the soul to the knowledge of sin.(a) The Spirit shows us the nature of sin, as attended with guilt, whereby we are obnoxious to the curse of the law.(b) The Spirit shows the sinner the defiling nature of sin, as opposed to the holiness of that God with whom he hath to do.(c) The Spirit shows the sinner the many heinous aggravations wherewith his sins in particular have been attended.(2) The Spirit instructs the soul in the nature of pardoning grace and mercy, which is the sweetest sound that an awakened conscience can ever hear; the most agreeable message a self-condemning sinner can ever receive.(a) The Spirit instructs the sinner that the privilege is attainable; that there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared.(b) The Spirit instructs the sinner in the only way through which His grace and mercy is to be attained; lets him know that an absolute God is a consuming fire; and directs him to Christ Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.(c) The Spirit instructs the sinner into the way through which pardon is communicated to him. That it was obtained by Christ; that it is received by faith; and that whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.(d) The Spirit further instructs the sinner who the persons are to whom this pardoning grace and mercy are applied. This He teaches, by the absolute promises of the Word, which reach the case of the most rebellious criminals.

2. What are the various actings of the soul in consequence of these instructions?(1) The soul thus instructed "sorrows after a godly sort." This is the first thing in which Gospel-repentance discovers itself to be genuine and of the right kind; of which "smiting upon the thigh" is very expressive.(2) The soul thus instructed is filled with shame and confusion of face, attended with an utter hatred of the sins he hath been guilty of. "was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth."(3) The soul thus instructed hath an abiding sense of these things. He is not weary of his rags to-day, and pleased with them again to-morrow; humbled for sin now, and wallowing in the same mire and dirt anon: No, "I did bear (saith Ephraim) the reproach of my youth."(4) The soul thus instructed is most sensibly affected with those sins to which he hath been most addicted. Heart sins are bewailed by the sincere Christian, and youthful transgressions are never forgotten by him.(5) The soul thus instructed always applieth to the blood of Christ for pardon.

(J. Hill.)

2. The text goes on to speak of the effect of this conversion, of the result of this homeward journey: "Surely after that I was turned, I repented." It is not a sign of the truly converted heart, to spring at a bound from the rebelliousness of a sinner to the rejoicing of a saint. Those who go most frequently to the Holy Communion know best the gulf which separates the two — they know in that nearness to Jesus Christ how far off they have been, how unworthy they are.

3. It takes much teaching, much fatherly correction and chastisement, many humble approaches to that altar which reveals the greatness of our burden, ere the soul can thus fully and heartily repent. Most of us, like Ephraim, are so unaccustomed to the yoke, through the easy, careless life we lead, that we need much application of doctrine to ourselves, much reproof of our personal faults, much instruction in righteousness.

4. It often happens that contrition of heart is granted long after maturity is reached — so that much recollection is needed ere the whole life can be reviewed before God. What is it which then disturbs us most? The remembrance probably of those precious years wherein the character was being formed — those priceless years, which might have witnessed the moulding of our yet pliant will into the thorough obedience of Christ, but which have been marked, instead, by a growing hardness and indifference and selfishness, scarcely to be altered afterwards. "I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth."

5. God means us to feel the weight of these old chains: He speaks against us in our wonderfully responsive conscience, writes the most painful truths concerning us in His heart-piercing Word — and why? Exactly for the opposite reason to that which makes Satan stand at our right hand to resist and accuse us. God smites on purpose that He may Himself be troubled for us, Himself have mercy upon us, Himself create a new thing in the earth, the Incarnation of His own Eternal Son, to be the propitiation for our sins, the renewer of our wasted youth and misused talents, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

(Canon Jelf.)

II. REPENTANCE IS THE GIFT OF GOD.

1. The mind, to which God has granted repentance unto life, has a just sense of its sins.

2. Another trait of the mind to which God has granted repentance, is an appreciation of His mercy through Christ.

3. Another characteristic of the penitent man is, that he turns from sin.

4. Another particular in this state of the penitent man, is a constant endeavour to obey God.

III. WHAT ARE THE EVIDENCES OF REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE? There are individuals who seem to suppose that a serious attendance on the duties of private and public prayer — a diligent reading of the Scriptures — a reverent hearing of the Word — and a celebration of the ordinances appointed by God — are an evidence that they are born of the Spirit. This is ample evidence of their love to the forms of religion, but no proof of its power. It has dwelt in thousands whose hearts were not right with God. There are others who seem to suppose that the abandonment of some external vice is to be regarded as evidence of repentance unto life. Repentance unto life is, indeed, attended by a reformation of morals, in all those who spiritually mourn over their sins. But this reformation is the effect of an internal change. The soul of the penitent man is careful to discriminate between good and evil — between light and darkness. It struggles against every unholy propensity, and every sinful habit, and toils through grace to extirpate them from the bosom. He exercises himself to have a conscience void of offence, both towards God and man. These powerful principles in the penitent heart diffuse their odour through the whole man, and cause him to be widely different from what he was previously. Nor is this a temporary change in his life. The whole course of an individual who is brought into the kingdom of God, is a course of repentance. So permanent is it in this life, as not to be completed till the saints are made perfect in glory.

(J. Foot, D. D.)

II. The abundant EXERCISE of Divine mercy.

1. In bestowing pardon.

2. In promoting peace; that rest of conscience which is the close attendant of pardon, and accompanies the scriptural hope and evidence of it.

3. In affording preservation.

III. The absolute CERTAINTY Of Divine mercy.

1. The greatness of God secures it.

2. The goodness of God secures it.

3. The faithfulness of God secures it.(1) He is faithful to His covenant; to His own solemn and voluntary engagement to save guilty man, according to a prescribed method; and this method is all of mercy, of abundant mercy, especially to the broken-hearted penitent.(2) He is faithful to His Word. This is the revelation of His covenant; its statement to us in direct promises and positive assurances.(3) He is faithful to His Son.(4) He is faithful to Himself. The whole scheme of Divine mercy is adapted and intended to display the glory of the Divine perfections; and can we suppose that this end will be frustrated?From the whole —

1. Let the impenitent tremble.

2. Let the humble hope.

3. Let the believer rejoice.

(T. Kidd.)

I. TO FOLLOW AN ANCIENT CUSTOM. Not all old customs bad, the good filtrates through all time. It is a holy duty to follow in the good, tried paths of the "just men made perfect."

II. TO KEEP ALIVE OUR SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES.

1. While faith obeys implicitly, aids are not rejected.

2. To recount becomingly our experiences serves two ends: we put God in remembrance; we keep Him in remembrance.

3. Our experiences may be such as —

(1)Past grace received.
(a) The grace to know,
(b) And the grace to love.

(2)Past strength renewed.

(3)Wonderful deliverance from fears.

(4)Help in trouble.

(5)Times of sweet communion. Thus we put in practice the word, " forget not all His benefits."

III. TO PUT UP LASTING MEMORIALS.

1. All our spiritual privileges may be as way-marks set up.

2. Blessed hours of devotion and times of sweet communion.

3. The Gospel of a holy life in the common lot for ever.

IV. TO HAVE A REGARD FOR POSTERITY. Sinners will need directing, saints will require comforting, workers with flagging energies must be stimulated. Then set up your "way-marks." The records of our experience will stand out like milestones, and all shall be as inspiring testimony to the faithfulness of Him who has promised neither to "leave us" nor "forsake us."

(John Jones.)

1. It flings an unrighteous reproach on God and others.(1) Let us begin with others. Friends and families are often disgraced by the sinners that belong to their houses: They are frequently ashamed of them, and reproached for them; they are ashamed to think, speak, or hear of them, to see or own them; and many are apt to reflect, sometimes indeed with too much reason, but at others without cause, as if their parents, their masters, or their other relations and friends, who have been most conversant with them, and might have had the greatest influence over them, have not taken proper care to counsel, caution, and restrain them.(2) But what is still infinitely worse, is that their iniquities throw the most vile and unrighteous reproach upon the holy and blessed God Himself, as if He were not what He is, and were not to be treated with the reverence and honour that are His due. Sin reproaches God's perfections, His name and His image, as if they were not worthy to be maintained with honour; it reproaches His workmanship in man, as if a creature had come out of His hand unworthy of Himself to be the author of; and it furnishes occasions to other sinners to reproach and blaspheme His blessed majesty.

2. It is a just reproach upon sinners themselves. It is the disgrace of their nature, it disrobes it of all its glory, defaces the beauteous image of God in which it was at first created, and debases it into the odious likeness and deformity of the devil, and of the brute.

II. THE SINS OF YOUNG PERSONS MUST NEEDS BE THE REPROACH OF THEIR YOUTH. Youth is indeed the most amiable age of life. It is the time for beauty and ornament, for activity and vigour, for gathering and improving in all that is excellent and desirable, and for pursuing after everything that is honourable and glorious. It is the time of expectation and hope, and the time of their own chief delight, and of others delighting in them. But sin stains all this glory of their youth, it sweeps away their lovely bloom, it depraves and perverts their vigorous powers, and makes them only so much the more capable of becoming despicable and vile; they are thereby daily heaping to themselves infamous and destructive things; they glory in their own shame; sport themselves in their own vain and foolish deceivings; and give melancholy prospects of growing up, the shame and torment of their friends, and the pests, instead of the blessings, of the rising generation; and they arc in the direct way of entailing all misery, for this world and the next, upon themselves.

III. A TIME IS COMING, WHEN, ONE WAY OR OTHER, THEY WILL BEAR THIS REPROACH.

1. There is a bearing it, in the fruits and effects of their sins. They are the source of many sorrows; they often bring great and numerous distresses upon sinners in the way of God's righteous judgment, and by the natural operation of their iniquities themselves.

2. There is a bearing the reproach of youth, in being reproached by others for their sins. Some sins bring such a reproach upon young men and women, as they can never get rid of all their days (2 Samuel 13:12, 13; Proverbs 6:32, 33).

3. There is a bearing the reproach of youth, in the reflections of their own consciences upon their sins.

IV. WHEN THEY COME TO BEAR THE REPROACH OF THEIR YOUTH, THEY WILL BE ASHAMED, YEA, EVEN CONFOUNDED AT IT.

1. Young people will be ashamed, yea, even confounded at the reproach of their youth, when they come to bear it in the way of God's mercy to them.

2. Young people will be ashamed, and even confounded at the reproach of their youth, when they come to bear it in the way of God's wrath against them.Reflections —

1. Let young and old think seriously with themselves, which of these is, or is like to be their condition.

2. How should Christ and His Gospel be prized and improved, to take away the reproach of your youth!

(John Guyse, D. D.)

I. CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE IS A CONSPICUOUS TRAIT IN A PLEASANT CHILD. Cheerful, in distinction from compulsory obedience. It will not be a sacrifice, forced out of him by overstrained prerogative, or rigorous compulsion, but rather the spontaneity of a loving, loyal heart. It will be a high sense of what is due from the offspring to the progenitor — a willing and cheerful consent to the known precepts and principles established at home. It not only yields readily to each expressed and absolute command, but goes beyond and acts continually upon what is implied, and expected, under the parental rule. It anticipates the audible prohibition: it waits not for the check or caution, for the law once revealed is thenceforth written on the mind and heart. Knowing that to do right, is the measure of that law, the constant aim will be to do right, whether it is expressly required or not. What a contrast there is — what a vital and tremendous difference — between such a child and his opposites son whose nature revolts at all the proper constraints of home, and puts scorn upon its holiest claims of honour and duty; a petulant, self-willed, wrongheaded son, who lives in his father s house, like a wild beast in a cage; who files in the face of authority, and bursts into uncontrollable fits of rage at the slightest reproof, and dares to turn upon those who support and cherish him, with words of abuse and malediction; a son who can look into the pleading face of the mother that bare him and laugh at her counsels, or the father that begat him with open contempt and loud dispute, and oh, the difference, who can measure it? Often have agonized parents been known to declare, that to have laid the child in his grave, would have been far easier than to have borne the daily inflictions of his wilfulness and evil behaviour (Proverbs 22:25). Nor is this without an impressive lesson for parents. Remember this solemn truth — the obedience due to you is enshrined in a universal and unqualified law. What is your example — what is your course of life? Your children are commanded to honour you, and they will usually do so, by adopting your practice. What is it?

II. REVERENCE IS A PRINCIPAL FEATURE IN THE CHARACTER AND DEPORTMENT OF A PLEASANT CHILD. It is not servility of which I speak, or an abject, self-distrusting spirit, which shrinks and cringes in the presence of authority or age. I would rather define it to be a due and noble appreciation of what belongs to parents and all superiors, including also a chastened respect for whatever is sacred or august. The true filial sentiment, as an excellent writer has said, will show itself in the tone of manners. You may detect the grace of this living sentiment, in the unnumbered offices that diminish a father's or a mother's care, or relieve their troubles. What exceeding beauty is there in the gentle, modest kindnesses that childhood and youth may throw around the hearthstone — the refined address — the unobtrusive attentions — the willing proffers of service! Do you ask if this be reverence? Yes — and but one rivulet from the fountain-head, for children have it in their power, if they have it in their hearts, not only to sweeten home with their courteous demeanour and ready will, but to be like attending angels there, in all that contributes to household peace and order: and when amidst the uncertainties of this mortal life, adversity or sickness invade their circle, and a shadow falls, what a blessing may arise from their hushed solicitude and consideration — what relief, more potential than all the arts of medicine, may they bring to the aching pillow, or the chamber of convalescence, by their tender assiduities. But more than this, a truly reverent child will ever be glad to adapt himself to all the varying circumstances and conditions of his father's house. If the sun of prosperity cease to shine upon it, or a necessity for frugal expenditures suddenly arise, he will not deepen the trial by a murmuring reluctance. The habit of obeisance and affectionate respect thus cultivated at home, will be displayed abroad and upon all occasions. Reverence will beautify all the ways of a pleasant child, and become his characteristic mark.

III. EARLY PIETY. Hitherto your attention has been drawn only to the branches and specimens of the fruit — this is the root of the tree. If the trunk is vigorous, if the boughs are luxuriant and well laden, hanging over the wall of the domestic garden, so that even the wayfarer may delight in their shade, it is altogether traceable to a spring of fatness, a hidden life beneath the ground. In like manner, the mind and affections of childhood, nurtured by godly counsels, quickened and enlightened beneath home culture, pleased and persuaded by the gentle tones of a mother's voice, and freshened by the ever-descending dews of heavenly grace, will steal forth upon the outward life in visible forms of fruit and flowers, and manifold attractiveness. We shall see that conscientiousness — that sense of the Divine presence — that shrinking from sin, because it is offensive to God — that love of purity and truth, which is so much to be admired — that interest in whatsoever things are lovely and honest, and of good report — that trusting, prayerful, guileless temper, which looks upward for help, and would not willingly go astray. Who can express the comeliness and beauty which rest upon such a child?

(W. F. Morgan, D. D.)

I. THE RETURNING SINNER UNDER HIS FIRST SPIRITUAL CONCERN, WHICH IS GENERALLY PREPARATORY TO EVANGELICAL REPENTANCE. Where shall we find him? What is he doing? He is not congratulating himself upon the imaginary goodness of his heart or life, or priding himself with secret wonder in a rich conceit of his excellences; but you will hear him, in his sorrowful retirement, bemoaning, condoling himself. He sees his case to be really awful and sad, and he, as it were, takes up a lamentation over himself. He is no more senseless, hard-hearted, and self-applauding, as he was wont to be; but, like a mourning turtle, he bewails himself. "Thou hast chastised me." This, as spoken by Ephraim, had a particular reference to the Babylonish captivity; but we may naturally take occasion from it to speak of those calamities in general, whether outward or inward, that are made the means of alarming the secure sinner. There are many ways which our Heavenly Father takes to correct His undutiful children until they return to Him. Sometimes He kindly takes away their health, the abused occasion of their wantonness and security, and restrains them from their lusts with fetters of affliction (Job 33:19, &c.). Sometimes God awakens the sinner to bethink himself, by stripping him of his earthly supports and comforts, his estate, or his relatives, which drew away his heart from eternal things, and thus brings him to see the necessity of turning to God, the fountain of bliss, upon the failure of the streams (2 Chronicles 33:11, 12). Thus also God promises to do with His chosen (Ezekiel 20:37; Psalm 89:32; Proverbs 22:15; Proverbs 29:15). But the principal means of correction which God uses for the end of return to Him is that of conscience; and indeed without this, all the rest are in vain. It is conscience that makes the sinner sensible of his misery and scourges him till he return to his duty. Conscience is a serpent in his breast, which bites and gnaws his heart; and he can no more avoid it, than he can fly from himself. Its force is so great and universal that even the heathen poet Juvenal, not famous for the delicacy of his morals, taught by experience, could speak feelingly of its secret blows, and of agonising sweats under its tortures. Let not such of you as have never been tortured with its remorse, congratulate yourselves upon your happiness, for you are not innocents; and therefore conscience will not always sleep; it will not always lie torpid and inactive, like a snake benumbed with cold, in your breast. It will awaken you either to your conversion or condemnation. Therefore now submit to its wholesome severities, now yield to its chastisements. Such of you as have submitted to its authority, and obeyed its faithful admonitions, find it your best friend; and you may bless the day in which you complied with its demands, though before Divine grace renewed your heart, your wills were stubborn and reluctant; and you might say with Ephraim, "I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke." You see the obstinate reluctance of an awakened sinner to return to God. Like a wild young bullock, he would range at large, and is impatient of the yoke of the law, and the restraints of conscience. He loves his sin and cannot bear to part with it. He has no relish for the exercises of devotion and ascetic mortification; and therefore will not submit to them. The way of holiness is disagreeable to his depraved heart, and he will not turn his feet to it. But the happy soul, on whom Divine grace is determined to finish its work in spite of all opposition, is suffered to weary itself out in a vain resistance of the chastisements of conscience, till it is obliged to yield, and submit to the yoke. And then with Ephraim it will cry, "Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned." This is the mourning sinner's language, when convinced that he must submit and turn to God, and in the meantime finds himself utterly unable to turn. Never did a drowning man call for help, or a condemned malefactor plead for pardon with more sincerity and ardour. If the sinner had neglected prayer all his life before now, he flies to it as the only expedient left, or if he formerly ran it over in a careless unthinking manner, as an insignificant form, now he exerts all the importunity of his soul; now he prays as for his life, and cannot rest till his desires are answered. The sinner ventures to enforce his petition by pleading his relation to God, "Turn me; for Thou art the Lord my God." The awakened sinner is obliged to take all his encouragement from God, and not from himself. All his trust is in the Divine mercy, and he is brought to a happy self-despair.

II. AS REFLECTING UPON THE SURPRISING EFFICACY OF GRACE HE HAD SOUGHT, AND WHICH WAS BESTOWED UPON HIM IN ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER. When the Lord exerts His power to subdue the stubbornness of the sinner, and sweetly to allure him to Himself, then the sinner repents; then his heart dissolves in ingenuous disinterested relentings. we learn from this passage, that the true penitent is sensible of a mighty turn in his temper and inclinations "Surely after that I was turned, I repented." His whole soul Is turned from what he formerly delighted in, and turned to what he had no relish for before. Particularly his thoughts, his will, and affections are turned to God; there is a heavenly bias communicated to them which draws them to holiness, like the law of gravitation in the material world. The penitent proceeds, After that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh." The same grace that turns him does also instruct him; nay, it is by discovering to him the beauty of holiness, and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that it draws him. And when instructed in these, "He smites upon his thigh." This gesture denotes consternation and amazement. He is struck with horror to think what an ungrateful, ignorant, stupid wretch he has been all his life till this happy moment. The pardoned penitent proceeds, "I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." We are ashamed when we are caught in a mean, base, and scandalous action; we blush, and are confounded, and know not where to look, or what to say. Thus the penitent is heartily ashamed of himself, when he reflects upon the sordid dispositions he has indulged, and the base and scandalous actions he has committed. He blushes at his own inspection; he is confounded at his own tribunal.

III. THE TENDER COMPASSION OF GOD TOWARDS MOURNING PENITENTS. While they are bemoaning their case, and conscious that they do not deserve one look of love from God, He is represented as attentively listening to catch the first penitential groan that breaks from their hearts. What strong consolation may this give to desponding mourners, who think themselves neglected by that God to whom they are pouring out their weeping supplications! He hears your secret groans, He counts your sighs, and puts your tears into His bottle. His eyes penetrate all the secrets of your heart, and He observes all your feeble struggles to turn to Himself; and He beholds you not as an unconcerned spectator, but with all the tender emotions of fatherly compassion: for, while He is listening to Ephraim's mournful complaints, He abruptly breaks in upon him, and sweetly surprises him with the warmest declarations of pity and grace. "Is this Ephraim?" &c. This passage contains a most encouraging truth, that, however vile and abandoned a sinner has been, yet, upon his repentance, he becomes God's dear son, His favourite child. He will, from that moment, regard him, provide for him, protect him, and bring him to His heavenly inheritance, as His son and heir (Romans 8:38).

(President Davies.)

I. A BROKEN HEART. Such was Ephraim's; he had departed far from God, he had fretted against the Lord, he had refused for a time to submit, but chastisement after chastisement in mercy came, and at length he received instruction.

1. His froward course is strikingly set forth. "A bullock unaccustomed to the yoke," Ephraim had spurned the hand that would have guided him.

2. There was insight into, and confession of his guilt. Nothing so fit to describe his state, am it was seen by his now enlightened eye, as the untamed bullock; like Asaph, "his heart is grieved, he is pricked in his reins"; like him he is ready to exclaim, "So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee."

3. There were the true breathings of prayer. "Turn Thou me."(1) The source is acknowledged whence this godly sorrow flows. "After that I was turned."(2) There is application for mercy. "Turn Thou me."(3) Faith was in exercise in this prayer of Ephraim. "Thou art the Lord my God."

II. HEALING MERCY. The mercy that God gives is Godlike mercy; yea, He giveth Himself to the believing soul in and by Jesus Christ.

1. God makes no mention of his sins.

2. He transcribes a fair copy of his confessions.

3. He treasures up his groans.

4. He addresses by the titles of affection the once wayward but now bemoaning Ephraim.

5. God answers the one desire of the contrite heart.

(F. Storr, M. A.)

(Dean Vaughan.)

     1030   God, compassion
     1070   God, joy of
     1135   God, suffering of
     2218   Christ, Son of God
     5830   delight
     5895   intimacy
     5966   tenderness
     6109   alienation
     6232   rejection of God, results
     6233   rejection, experience
     6688   mercy, demonstration of God's
     7115   children of God
     8205   childlikeness

Jeremiah 31:18-20

     6734   repentance, importance
     8479   self-examination, examples

What the Immense Creation Teaches
'If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.'--JER. xxxi. 37. In the former sermon we considered the previous verse as presenting the stability of creation as a guarantee of the firmness of God's gracious covenant. Now we have to consider these grand closing words which bring before us another aspect of the universe as a guarantee for another side of God's gracious …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

August the Twenty-First Satisfaction
"My people shall be satisfied with My goodness." --JEREMIAH xxxi. 10-14. And how unlike is all this to the feasts of the world! There is a great show, but no satisfaction. There is much decorative china, but no nutritious food or drink. "Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again." We rise from the table, and our deepest cravings are unappeased. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" We know. We have had a condiment, but no meat; a showy menu-card, but no reviving feast. Nothing but …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

God in the Covenant
But I have been thinking for the last two or three days, that the covenant of grace excels the other covenant most marvelously in the mighty blessings which it confers. What does the covenant of grace convey? I had thought this morning of preaching a sermon upon "The covenant of grace; what are the blessings it gives to God's children?" But when I began to think of it, there was so much in the covenant, that if I had only read a catalogue of the great and glorious blessings, wrapped up within its …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Two Covenants: their Relation
"It is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit, the one by the bondmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants." -GAL. iv. 22-24. THERE are two covenants, one called the Old, the other the New. God speaks of this very distinctly in Jeremiah, where He says: "The days come, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not after the …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The New Covenant
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."--JER. xxxi. 33, 34. ISAIAH has often been called …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Conversion of all that Come.
"Turn Thou me and I shall be turned." --Jer. xxxi. 18. The elect, born again and effectually called, converts himself. To remain unconverted is impossible; but he inclines his ear, he turns his face to the blessed God, he is converted in the fullest sense of the word. In conversion the fact of cooperation on the part of the saved sinner assumes a clearly defined and perceptible character. In regeneration there was none; in the calling there was a beginning of it; in conversion proper it became a …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Old Things are Passed Away.
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Whether the Active Life Remains after this Life?
Objection 1: It would seem that the active life remains after this life. For the acts of the moral virtues belong to the active life, as stated above [3738](A[1]). But the moral virtues endure after this life according to Augustine (De Trin. xiv, 9). Therefore the active life remains after this life. Objection 2: Further, teaching others belongs to the active life, as stated above [3739](A[3]). But in the life to come when "we shall be like the angels," teaching will be possible: even as apparently …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Waiting Faith Rewarded and Strengthened by New Revelations
'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A vision of Judgement and Cleansing
'And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. 4. And He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him He said, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Perseverance in Holiness
May the King himself come near and feast his saints to-day! May the Comforter who convinced of sin now come to cheer us with the promise! We noticed concerning the fig tree, that it was confirmed in its barrenness: it had borne no fruit, though it made large professions of doing so, and it was made to abide as it was. Let us consider another form of confirmation: not the curse of continuance in the rooted habit of evil; but the blessing of perseverance in a settled way of grace. May the Lord show …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 35: 1889

Appendix xiv. The Law in Messianic Times.
THE question as to the Rabbinic views in regard to the binding character of the Law, and its imposition on the Gentiles, in Messianic times, although, strictly speaking, not forming part of this history, is of such vital importance in connection with recent controversies as to demand special consideration. In the text to which this Appendix refers it has been indicated, that a new legislation was expected in Messianic days. The ultimate basis of this expectancy must be sought in the Old Testament …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Conversion --Varied Phenomena or Experience.
We have spoken of the meaning of this term, inquired into the nature of the change, and noted its essential elements. We have also learned that there are some who do not need it because they are in a converted state, and that all who are not in such a state of Grace, do need conversion, regardless of anything that may or may not have taken place in the past. We inquire now as to the agencies or means by which this change is brought about. For it is a change which man can certainly not effect by his …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The King in Exile
'And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. 14. When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt; 15. And was there until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

"We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. "
1 John ii. 1.--"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." There is no settlement to the spirit of a sinner that is once touched with the sense of his sins, and apprehension of the justice and wrath of God, but in some clear and distinct understanding of the grounds of consolation in the gospel, and the method of salvation revealed in it. There is no solid peace giving answer to the challenges of the law and thy own conscience, but in the advocation of Jesus Christ, the Saviour …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Exposition of Chap. Iii. (ii. 28-32. )
Ver. 1. "And it shall come to pass, afterwards, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." The communication of the Spirit of God was the constant prerogative of the Covenant-people. Indeed, the very idea of such a people necessarily requires it. For the Spirit of God is the only inward bond betwixt Him and that which is created; a Covenant-people, therefore, without such an inward …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Lord's Supper Instituted.
(Jerusalem. Evening Before the Crucifixion.) ^A Matt. XXVI. 26-29; ^B Mark XIV. 22-25; ^C Luke XXII. 19, 20; ^F I. Cor. XI. 23-26. ^a 26 And as they were eating, ^f the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; 24 and when he had given thanks, { ^b blessed,} ^f he brake it, ^a and he gave to the disciples, and said, ^b Take ye: ^a Take, eat; this is my body. ^f which is ^c given ^f for you: this do in remembrance of me. [As only unleavened bread was eaten during the paschal supper, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The First Covenant
"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me."--EX. xix. 5. "He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments."--DEUT. iv. 13.i "If ye keep these judgments, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant,"--DEUT. vii. 12. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, which My covenant they brake."--JER. xxxi. 31, 32. WE have …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Sanctification.
I. I will remind you of some points that have been settled in this course of study. 1. The true intent and meaning of the law of God has been, as I trust, ascertained in the lectures on moral government. Let this point if need be, be examined by reference to those lectures. 2. We have also seen, in those lectures, what is not, and what is implied in entire obedience to the moral law. 3. In those lectures, and also in the lectures on justification and repentance, it has been shown that nothing is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology