1 Corinthians 3:23

REFLECTIONS

DEAREST Lord Jesus! while I hear thy servant, as in this Chapter, reproving the Church, for their weakness in faith, and their little disposition to anything more than as babes in Christ; how can I overlook my Lord's tenderness to his flock, who hath fed them in all ages, and is feeding them now, as a Shepherd! Dearest Jesus! thou knoweth how to bear with the weaknesses and infirmities of thy people! Thou carriest the lambs in thy bosom, and gently leadeth those that are with young.

Do thou, gracious Lord, watch over the husbandry of thy Church! Do thou order all the apartments of the spiritual building. Lord! grant, that I may never bring the wood, and hay, and stubble of anything of my own, to lay upon the foundation Jesus Christ; And let the gold, and the silver, and the precious stones, laid upon, Christ, be the doctrines of Christ, that in the hour of trial, they may never be burnt up, but be found to be Christ's, which, will stand every trial.

And blessed Lord the Spirit! suffer me never to lose sight of that soul-reviving truth, that the bodies of Christ's members are his Temple. Lord, take up thine abode in my poor nature, and reign in me, and rule in me, as the Almighty Lord of every affection. And let that vast inheritance, to which, by my new birth, I am begotten; be my everlasting consolation, against every exercise, and sorrow of life. While I can say with the Church, I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me; sure I am, that both in life and death, things present and things to come, every matter and every event, must minister to the Lord's glory and my salvation. If Christ be mine, all is mine. And blessed shall I be in my basket and in my store, in my lying down and in my rising up, in life, in death, in time, and, to all eternity. Precious thought! Allure ours, for we are Christ's, and Christ's is God's. Amen.