In estimating the gifts of intelligent prophecy on the one hand, and the gifts of tongues on the other, the apostle tests their respective value by their practical utility. It could not be denied that one great end of the existence of the Christian Church was, as it still is, the instruction of the ignorant and the reformation of the sinful. It is clear that at Corinth, and at other places where Christian communities existed in the first age, there was already a constant intercourse between the Church and the world. Attracted by curiosity, or driven by spiritual wants and hopes, the unbelieving heathen and Jews would sometimes attend the Christian assemblies. This being so, Paul asks, What must be the effect upon such persons, first of such an exhibition of supernatural powers such as the Corinthians delighted in, and secondly of the proclamation of the truths and promises of the gospel? His own answer is that, whilst the speaking with tongues may amaze, it will probably be set down as ranting; whilst the utterance of God's Word will sometimes issue in the enlightenment, conviction, and salvation of the sinner. Surely a sufficient and decisive test!

I. THE MEANS OF THE UNBELIEVER'S CONVERSION. This is represented as prophecy, i.e. the uttering forth by man, as God's messenger, of God's mind and will. And in the case supposed by the apostle, evidently the declaration concerns the sinful state and the spiritual needs of man, the merciful purposes of God, the provision of pardon, renewal, and eternal life, through the Saviour Jesus Christ. Prophecy, so understood, has never ceased in the Church of the Lord Jesus. His ministers prophesy when they give witness to him, when they publish the gospel and its gracious invitations.

II. THE PROCESS OF THE UNBELIEVER'S CONVERSION. The question arises - How does the Christian prophecy affect the mind and heart of the ignorant and unbelieving hearer? According to the representation of the apostle, the word evinces its own divinity by making the sinner known to himself. And there can be no more generally convincing and conclusive evidence of the authority of religion than is afforded by the fact. that the preaching of the gospel reveals man to himself in his true state and position. The truths of the gospel are the utterances of him who formed the human heart. The candle of the Lord searches even the dark places of man's nature, and that which is hidden is brought forth to light. The conscience stricken sinner realizes his guilt and danger, and his need of a Divine Deliverer. He is convinced, examined, judged, by the several messages which penetrate his nature. The secrets of his heart, his iniquities, his sorrow and penitence, his aspirations for a better life, are all made manifest.

III. THE RESULTS AND SIGNS OF THE UNBELIEVER'S CONVERSION.

1. His enmity to God and to God's truth is utterly vanquished. He falls down, contrite and submissive, like him Who cried, "God, be merciful to me a sinner."

2. His enmity is exchanged for reverence and worship. Before, he may have adored the false gods whom he has been trained to revere; now and henceforth there is for him but one God, the Saviour of all men.

3. He acknowledges the Divine presence in the Church. Had he listened only to "tongues," he would have deemed the speakers to have raved. But listening to words of grace and truth, the convert acknowledges that in meeting e he has met with God, and their assembly has become to him, as it has God's people he has met with God, and their assembly has become to him, as it has become to multitudes, "the house of God, and the gate of heaven. - T.

I. ITS NATURE.

1. Not the prediction of future events (ver. 3), nor ordinarily the discussion of Scripture, since the New Testament was not yet written.

2. But the preaching of New Testament truth already learnt from the apostles and others, under the direct impulse of the Spirit (ver. 30), which was liberally bestowed upon the members of the Church (ver. 24).

II. ITS EFFECTS.

1. The edification of the Church.

2. The conviction of the ignorant and unbelieving — producing awakening of conscience, confession of sin, and the acknowledgment of God's presence.

III. ITS RELATION TO MODERN PREACHING.

1. The direct communications of the Holy Spirit are superseded by the completed canon of Scripture, which must be carefully studied by persons properly qualified, and appointed.

2. Yet it were well if there were less of human art and method and much more of the Spirit's unction and power.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. HOW HE ENTERS THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY.

1. Unbelieving.

2. Ignorant.

II. WHAT HE HEARS.

1. The voice of the preacher.

2. The proclamation of truth.

3. The awakenings of conscience.

III. WHAT HE DOES.

1. Confesses his sin.

2. Worships God.

3. Bears testimony to His presence and power.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. PREACHING THE GOSPEL IS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD, AND WAS CONSTANTLY USED IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH (Matthew 28:19). Believing in Christ is necessary to salvation; and preaching the gospel is generally necessary to believing (Romans 10:14; 1 Corinthians 1:21).

II. CURIOSITY FREQUENTLY LED PERSONS TO THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLIES. The religion of Christ made a great stir in the world. Some were greatly prejudiced against it. But when they saw miracles performed before their eyes; when they saw some of their neighbours forsake the altars of their idols, and become moral and lovely in their conduct, they were forced to stop and consider how these things could be, and some of them would, of course, go and hear for themselves. Our text supposes. such a thing. God often overruled this kind of curiosity for good. Zaccheus wanted to gratify his curiosity; but Christ, in mercy, called and converted him. And it is happy for many that they did not suffer their own prejudices, or the fear of man, to prevent their judging for themselves.

III. PRIMITIVE PREACHING HAD A TENDENCY TO CONVINCE MEN OF THEIR GUILT AND DANGER.

1. The unbeliever, coming into the assembly, is convinced; whoever preached, his doctrine had this tendency, to convince the man of sin. This is done by the power of the Spirit, going along with the Word (John 16:8).

2. "He is judged of all"; tried, and condemned. The consideration of his own sin is brought home to his conscience, as when Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man!" He receives the sentence of death in himself. It is the office of an enlightened conscience to anticipate the judgment of the great day. Most men have such a notion of the mercy of God as to forget His justice and holiness; but when a person is convinced of sin he sees that God is holy and just; and he cannot but dread these terrible attributes, till he learns from the gospel how God is at once "a just God and a Saviour" (Isaiah 45:21; Romans 3:36).

IV. PREACHING THE WORD TENDS TO DISCLOSE THE SECRET WORKINGS OF THE HEART, WHICH WERE UNOBSERVED BEFORE. Most men are so busied in worldly affairs, or stupefied with worldly pleasures, that they are great strangers to themselves. But the faithful preaching of God's Word has a tendency to rouse men from their supineness. The Word of God is a mirror that shows men their hearts. Persons who have not been used to hear the gospel are frequently surprised, when they sit under a powerful ministry, to hear their own case and character so exactly described. This is the proper effect of the Word of God, which carries with it a mighty and convincing argument of its truth, as being the Word of Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins (Jeremiah 17:10).

V. WHEN A MAN IS CONVERTED TO GOD HE ALWAYS BEGINS TO PRAY. This was the symptom of Paul's own conversion: "Behold, he prayeth!" It is sad to think that so many people never pray. A short form of words, always the same, and always unfelt. Behold here, a man so overpowered with a sense of the majesty and justice of God; so deeply affected with his danger as a sinner, and so eagerly desirous of pardoning mercy, that be forgets he is surrounded by mortals, and falls down before his God with the publican's petition (Luke 18:13). So have I seen a condemned criminal at a human bar, when the sentence of death has been pronounced, fall down on his knees, and, regardless of the gazing throng, implore the favour of the judge. So have I seen dying persons, expecting soon to appear before God, cry aloud for mercy, without considering who surrounded their beds. The place, or the posture of prayer, is of little consequence. It might disturb the public worship, yet when a person is greatly affected, it will be difficult to conceal his emotions. He will lift up his heart, if not his voice to God.

VI. CONVERTED PERSONS DROP ALL THERE PREJUDICES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF GOD, AND SPEAK HONOURABLY OF THEM. "He will report that God is in you of a truth." Profane people treat them with contempt and scorn. But no sooner does a man come to himself, and see things as they are, than he forms a very different opinion of godly persons. He sees that they are the excellent of the earth, the children of God, and heirs of eternal glory.

(G. Burder.)

I. CONVERSION EFFECTED BY MEANS.

1. The door of the sanctuary should be an open one (ver. 23). Restrictions should be swept away. Non-church-goers are often such through the action of church-goers.

2. Means should constantly be employed in the sanctuary. The gospel should be preached. The presence of "unbelievers "and unlearned should be borne in mind.

II. PROBABLE MEANS OF CONVERSION.

1. Order and propriety in the sanctuary. The building is not unimportant, for there are some churches in which it is difficult to be converted. The services should be decorous, or the stranger may think we are mad. But dulness and coldness are not decorous.

2. Worship. Song and prayer have won not a few — but both may hinder.

3. Preaching should be —

(1)Intelligible — not over the heads of the people.

(2)Sensible — not under their heads.

(3)Direct (ver. 24), so that the hearer may feel that it is meant for him.

(4)Searching — manifesting the secrets of the heart.

(5)Scriptural.

III. TESTS OF THE SUITABILITY OF THE MEANS.

1. What do the unbelieving and ignorant think of them? Some will scoff; but what will the common-sense and sincere think? What ought they to think?

2. What results will follow? Are they those of ver. 25? If not something is amiss. Is it the want of the Holy Spirit?

(E. Hurndall, M. A.)

I. WILL BE A POWER ON UNBELIEVERS, for —

1. It is the exertion of spiritual power.

2. It will arouse and liberate the conscience.

3. It must include the aspects of truth directly suited to reach the unbeliever.

II. WILL EXERT A PARTICULAR KIND OF POWER ON UNBELIEVERS.

1. Impression, "He is convinced of all."

2. Knowledge of self, "Secrets of heart made manifest."

3. Sense of God (ver. 25).

(R. Tuck, B. A.)

I. THE HEART IS THE DEPOSITORY OF MANY SECRETS. The assumption of knowledge is one of our most besetting and perilous weaknesses; how little we really know of the world around us! We know far less of that within. Note some of the secrets of the heart of an unbelieving man.

1. There is hidden within him an immense amount of ignorance and conceit of which he knows nothing. He has no true knowledge of himself as a sinner. Had he such knowledge he would apply at once for salvation, and not pharisaically congratulate himself that he is not as other men.

2. A deep and inexhaustible depravity which alienates him from God. Of this he knows nothing, or the knowledge would be such a misery as would give him no rest until a remedy was discovered.

3. Many unremembered and unthought-of sins. Sin unknowingly committed as well as those willingly forgotten lie buried deep in the memory till the hour of revival.

4. Numerous latent fears. The child that is happy in the broad daylight knows nothing of those fears which the dark and lonely night will awaken. Even in this world the unbeliever's fears may emerge from the caverns in which they lie concealed; but in the hereafter who can prognosticate the fears which will be awakened by the consciousness of unforgiven guilt?

5. A sense of God, right, truth, and immortality. No one is so utterly degraded as to have no traces of those radical principles. Not that we are born with any positive ideas of them, but we are born with certain capacities which infallibly secure to us impressions of the invisible, infinite, and eternal. And there will come a time when these will be the grand all-absorbing truths.

II. THE MANIFESTATION OF THOSE SECRETS. Ignorant as we are of the depths of our own nature there is a limited but sufficient knowledge that we may obtain of ourselves. By the light of God's Word and the teaching of His Spirit we may learn so much as to see the necessity and suitableness of God's provision for our salvation. And oftentimes it pleases God — as in the case before us — to lead the unbeliever to the assembly of His people, and by the truth published and the Spirit given there, to shed light into the heart. As psalm and prayer uprise, as the Scriptures are read and explained, new and surprising revelations are vouchsafed. The slumbering conscience is aroused, memory is quickened, the consciousness of God, judgment, and eternity becomes vivid, and the once unbeliever is overpowered, and confesses to the Divine revelation made to his heart. Conclusion: If you have not seen any of these things, consider —

1. Your fearful and benighted ignorance.

2. The danger of this revelation when it will be of no avail.

3. The necessity of the prayer, "Lord, that I may receive my sight."

(W. T. Bull, B. A.)

for their use: —

1. A. "spiritual gift" is the faculty in each in which the Holy Spirit reveals Himself. Every man has some such, in which his chief force lies.

2. There are certain creative epochs when intense feelings elevate all the powers preternaturally. Such, e.g., was the close of the last century, when the revolutionary spirit created a preternatural abundance of military talent. Such, too, was the first age of Christianity. The Holy Spirit was poured out largely, and whatever it touched it vivified. The Holy Ghost may mingle with man in three ways — with his body, and then you have a miracle; with his spirit, and then you have that exalted feeling which finds vent in "tongues"; or with his intellect, and then you have prophecy.

I. IN THE CASE OF PROPHECY, cultivated minds were themselves able by the understanding to convey to the understanding what the Spirit meant.

1. But the essential in all this was the Divine element of life. Just as when rain falls on dry ground, the resultant greenness and vigour are simply the outward manifestation of invisible life — so the new life penetrated the whole man, and gave force to every faculty.

2. Consider what this gift must have done in developing the Church! Men came into Christian assemblies for once, and were astonished by the flood of luminous and irresistible truth which passed from the prophetic lips: it became an instrument of conversion.

3. In ver. 29 we learn that private inspiration was always to be judged by the general inspiration — i.e., it was not to be taken for granted because spoken. Inspiration is one thing, infallibility is another. God the Holy Ghost, as a sanctifying Spirit, dwells in human beings with partial sin. Did He not do so, He could not dwell with man at all. Therefore, St. Paul says that the spirits of the prophets are to be subject to the prophets. Neglect of this has been a fruitful cause of fanaticism. The afflatus was not irresistible; a man was not to be borne away by his gift, but to be master of it, and responsible for it.

II. RESPECTING TONGUES, note the following directions.

1. Repression of feeling in public. This state of ecstacy was so pleasurable, and the admiration awarded to it so easy to be procured, that numbers, instead of steady well-doing, spent life in "showing off." The American camp meetings, etc., show how uncontrolled religious feeling may overpower reason — mere animal feeling mingling with the movements of Divine life. There is great danger in this, and just in proportion as feelings are strong do they require discipline. When religious life degenerates into mere indulgence of feeling, life wastes away, and the man or woman becomes weak, instead of strong. What a lesson! These Divine high feelings in Corinth — to what had they degenerated! A stranger coming in would pronounce the speakers mad!

2. "Forbid not to speak with tongues." A common man would have said, "All this is wild fanaticism; away with it!" St. Paul said, "It is not all fanaticism: part is true, part is error." The true is God's Spirit. Learn, then, to sympathise with deep feeling. There are cold, intellectual men, who frown on every manifestation of feeling; whereas only the Spirit can interpret the Spirit.

3. To prefer gifts which are useful to others, rather than those which draw admiration to ourselves. And yet there are few who would not rather be the gifted singer, at whose strains breathless multitudes melt into tears, than some nurse of a hospital, soothing pain, or a Dorcas making garments for the poor. It is better to be useful than brilliant.

4. The real union of the human race lies in oneness of heart. This gift was not a gift of foreign languages; a Greek might be speaking in the Spirit, and another Greek might not understand him; but a Roman or a Mesopotamian might, and this by a gift of sympathy. The world is craving for unity; it may be centuries before it comes; still it is something to be on the right track. Christianity casts aside all human plans and speculations as utterly insufficient. It does not look to political economy, to ecclesiastical drill, nor to the absorption of all languages into one; but it looks to the eternal Spirit of God, which proceeds from the eternal Son. One heart, and then many languages will be no barrier. One spirit, and man will understand man. Conclusion: There are gifts which draw admiration to a man's self, others which solace and soothe him personally, and a third class which benefit others. The world and the Bible are at issue on the comparative worth of these. A gifted singer soon makes a fortune, and men give their guineas ungrudgingly for a morning's enjoyment. An humble teacher in a school, or a missionary, can often but only just live. Only remember that, in the sight of the Everlasting Eye, the one is creating sounds which perish with the hour that gave them birth, the other is building for the eternal world an immortal human spirit.

(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Corinthians, PaulCorinthAmongst, Bare, Bow, Certainly, Clear, Declare, Declaring, Disclosed, Evils, Exclaiming, Face, Fall, Fallen, Falling, Heart, Hidden, Homage, Indeed, Laid, Manifest, Manifested, Really, Report, Reporting, Result, Revealed, Saying, Secrets, Thus, Truly, Truth, Worship1. Prophecy is commended,
2. and preferred before speaking in tongues,
6. by a comparison drawn from musical instruments.
12. Both must be referred to edification,
22. as to their true and proper end.
26. The true use of each is taught,
27. and the abuse rebuked.
34. Women in the churches.

1 Corinthians 14:25

     1110   God, present everywhere
     5016   heart, fallen and redeemed
     6163   faults

1 Corinthians 14:1-33

     1444   revelation, NT
     5110   Paul, teaching of

1 Corinthians 14:22-25

     6257   unbelievers

1 Corinthians 14:24-25

     1305   God, activity of
     3296   Holy Spirit, in the world
     7751   persuasion

1 Corinthians 14:24-33

     3275   Holy Spirit, in the church

1 Corinthians xiv, 20
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. It would be going a great deal too far to say, that they who fulfilled the latter part of this command, were sure also to fulfil the former; that they who were men in understanding, were, therefore, likely to be children in malice. But the converse holds good, with remarkable certainty, that they who are children in understanding, are proportionally apt to be men in malice: that is, in proportion …
Thomas Arnold—The Christian Life

Gunsaulus -- the Bible Vs. Infidelity
Frank Wakely Gunsaulus was born at Chesterville, Ohio, in 1856. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1875. For some years he was pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago, and since 1899 pastor of Central Church, Chicago. He is also president of the Armour Institute of Technology. He is a fascinating speaker, having a clear, resonant voice, and a dignified presence. His mind is a storehouse of the best literature, and his English style is noteworthy for its purity and richness. He is the author …
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10

Here is the Sum of My Examination Before Justice Keelin, Justice Chester, Justice Blundale, Justice Beecher, Justice Snagg, Etc.
After I had lain in prison above seven weeks, the quarter-sessions were to be kept in Bedford, for the county thereof, unto which I was to be brought; and when my jailor had set me before those justices, there was a bill of indictment preferred against me. The extent thereof was as followeth: That John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, being a person of such and such conditions, he hath (since such a time) devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear Divine service, …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

The Substance of Some Discourse had Between the Clerk of the Peace and Myself; when He came to Admonish Me, According to the Tenor of that Law, by which I was in Prison.
When I had lain in prison other twelve weeks, and now not knowing what they intended to do with me, upon the third of April 1661, comes Mr Cobb unto me (as he told me), being sent by the justices to admonish me; and demand of me submittance to the church of England, etc. The extent of our discourse was as followeth. Cobb. When he was come into the house he sent for me out of my chamber; who, when I was come unto him, he said, Neighbour Bunyan, how do you do? Bun. I thank you, Sir, said I, very …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Things to be Meditated on as Thou Goest to the Church.
1. That thou art going to the court of the Lord, and to speak with the great God by prayer; and to hear his majesty speak unto thee by his word; and to receive his blessing on thy soul, and thy honest labour, in the six days past. 2. Say with thyself by the way--"As the hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God: When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Miracle of Tongues.
"If any man speak in an (unknown) tongue, . . . let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him speak to himself, and to God."-- 1 Cor. xiv. 27, 28. The third sign following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit consisted in extraordinary sounds that proceeded from the lips of the apostles--sounds foreign to the Aramaic tongue, never before heard from their lips. These sounds affected the multitude in different ways: some called them babblings of inebriated men; others heard in them the great …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Second Wall.
The second wall is even more tottering and weak: that they alone pretend to be considered masters of the Scriptures; although they learn nothing of them all their life, they assume authority, and juggle before us with impudent words, saying that the Pope cannot err in matters of faith, whether he be evil or good; albeit they cannot prove it by a single letter. That is why the canon law contains so many heretical and unchristian, nay, unnatural laws; but of these we need not speak now. For whereas …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

Luther's First Preface.
To the "Geystliche Gsangbuechlin, Erstlich zu Wittenberg, und volgend durch Peter schoeffern getruckt, im jar m. d. xxv. Autore Ioanne Walthero." That it is good, and pleasing to God, for us to sing spiritual songs is, I think, a truth whereof no Christian can be ignorant; since not only the example of the prophets and kings of the Old Testament (who praised God with singing and music, poesy and all kind of stringed instruments) but also the like practice of all Christendom from the beginning, …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—The Hymns of Martin Luther

Women are not Permitted to Speak at the Time of the Divine Liturgy...
Women are not permitted to speak at the time of the Divine Liturgy; but, according to the word of Paul the Apostle, "let them be silent. For it is not permitted to them to speak, but to be in subjection, as the law also saith. But if they wish to learn anything let them ask their own husbands at home." Notes. Ancient Epitome of Canon LXX. Women are not permitted to speak in church. "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak," is the passage referred …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Eighteenth Day for Peace
WHAT TO PRAY.--For Peace "I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplication be made for kings and all that are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour."--1 TIM. ii"He maketh wars to cease to the end of the earth."--PS. xlvi. 9. What a terrible sight!--the military armaments in which the nations find their pride. What a terrible thought!--the evil passions that may at any moment bring …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms.
1. Beware of singing divine psalms for an ordinary recreation, as do men of impure spirits, who sing holy psalms intermingled with profane ballads: They are God's word: take them not in thy mouth in vain. 2. Remember to sing David's psalms with David's spirit (Matt. xxii. 43.) 3. Practise St. Paul's rule--"I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the understanding also." (1 Cor. xiv. 15.) 4. As you sing uncover your heads (1 Cor. xi. 4), and behave yourselves in comely reverence as in the …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

From his Entrance on the Ministry in 1815, to his Commission to Reside in Germany in 1820
1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed; and the extracts which follow describe his first offerings in the ministry in a simple and affecting manner. 1 mo. 5.--The subject of the prophet's going down to the potter's house opened so clearly on my mind in meeting this morning that I thought I could almost have publicly …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

The Preacher as a Christian.
In the last lecture I spoke of St. Paul as a Man, showing how remarkable were his endowments and acquirements, and how these told in his apostolic career. But it was not through these that he was what he was. Great as were the gifts bestowed on him by nature and cultivated by education, they were utterly inadequate to produce a character and a career like his. It was what Christianity added to these that made him St. Paul. It is right enough that we should now recognise the importance of his natural …
James Stalker—The Preacher and His Models

Fifteenth Day. The Holy Spirit.
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet: because Jesus was not yet glorified.'--John vii. 39. 'The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.'--John xiv. 26. 'God chose you to salvation in sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.'--2 Thess. ii. 13. (See 1 Pet. i. 2.) It has sometimes been said, that while the Holiness of God stands out more prominently …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Ten Reasons Demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be Moral.
1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest--First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the practice of this commandment the keeping of all the other consists; which makes God so often complain that all his worship is neglected or overthrown, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Spiritual Gifts.
"But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way show I unto you." --1 Cor. xii. 31 (R.V.). The charismata or spiritual gifts are the divinely ordained means and powers whereby the King enables His Church to perform its task on the earth. The Church has a calling in the world. It is being violently attacked not only by the powers of this world, but much more by the invisible powers of Satan. No rest is allowed. Denying that Christ has conquered, Satan believes that the time …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Meditations to Stir us up to Morning Prayer.
1. If, when thou art about to pray, Satan shall suggest that thy prayers are too long, and that therefore it were better either to omit prayers, or else to cut them shorter, meditate that prayer is thy spiritual sacrifice, wherewith God is well pleased (Heb. xiii. 15, 16;) and therefore it is so displeasing to the devil, and so irksome to the flesh. Bend therefore thy affections (will they, nill they) to so holy an exercise; assuring thyself, that it doth by so much the more please God, by how much …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

That the Unskilful Venture not to Approach an Office of Authority.
No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Holy Spirit Guiding the Believer into a Life as a Son.
The Apostle Paul writes in Rom. viii. 14, R. V., "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." In this passage we see the Holy Spirit taking the conduct of the believer's life. A true Christian life is a personally conducted life, conducted at every turn by a Divine Person. It is the believer's privilege to be absolutely set free from all care and worry and anxiety as to the decisions which we must make at any turn of life. The Holy Spirit undertakes all that responsibility …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Peace
Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. I Pet 1:1. Having spoken of the first fruit of sanctification, assurance, I proceed to the second, viz., Peace, Peace be multiplied:' What are the several species or kinds of Peace? Peace, in Scripture, is compared to a river which parts itself into two silver streams. Isa 66:12. I. There is an external peace, and that is, (1.) (Economical, or peace in a family. (2.) Political, or peace in the state. Peace is the nurse of plenty. He maketh peace in thy borders, …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Necessity of Regeneration, Argued from the Immutable Constitution of God.
John III. 3. John III. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. WHILE the ministers of Christ are discoursing of such a subject, as I have before me in the course of these Lectures, and particularly in this branch of them which I am now entering upon, we may surely, with the utmost reason, address our hearers in those words of Moses to Israel, in the conclusion of his dying discourse: Set your hearts unto all …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Christian Prayer
Scripture references: Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13; John 17; Matthew 26:41; Mark 11:24,25; Luke 6:12,28; 9:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:17,25; 1 Corinthians 14:13,15; Psalm 19:14; 50:15, Matthew 7:7; 1 Timothy 2:1; Ephesians 3:20,21; John 16:23; 14:14; James 5:16. THE PROVINCE OF PRAYER Definition.--Prayer is the communion of man with God. It is not first of all the means of getting something from God, but the realization of Him in the soul. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

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