Hosea 14:2

Hosea 14:2

There is a porch even within the sanctuary of repentance. There is a pause of preparation, words selected, distinct movement, accurate speaking, an order in prayer, a new relation to God recognized, an audience asked, reception given, leading up to self-dedication.

I. Words are immense helps to thoughts. You will never think accurately, nor think continuously, nor think without wandering, without words. Therefore, never be indifferent to the language in which you clothe your religion. "Take with you words."

II. When the words are ready, "turn." Adjust the attitude of your mind. It only wants a real "turn." The back where the face was, and the face where the back was; looking the other way, away from the world, away from the past, straight into the love of Christ.

III. Words are sacrifice. It is a pleasant and a holy thought that we all of us carry about with us wherever we go the means of sacrifice to God. We should offer all we have. Our lips should make sacrifice. Sacrifice, in its high propitiatory sense we cannot, and we need not, offer sacerdotally. There is no sacrifice in any Christian worship. We only plead one sacrifice, made once and for ever for the sins of the whole world. But spiritually every one of us is a priest. And there is not a believer who has not a sacrifice to offer: himself, his heart, his life, his soul, his body, his lips.

J. Vaughan, Sermons,10th series, p. 173.

References: Hosea 14:3. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1695.Hosea 14:4. Ibid.,vol. ix., No. 501, vol. xvi., No. 920; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 296. Hosea 14:4. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 203.