The highest joy in the world is that which Christ feels in saving a sinner. Such as the cost is, such is the work; and such as the service is, such is the joy.
I. This is true of our private devotions. It is comparatively easy to pray morning and evening, but it is much more difficult to do so regularly in the course of the day. Yet the omitted and costly part is the very part which would show reality or give it.
II. The same is true of Bible-reading. There are two ways of reading God's word, so widely separate that the Bible is two books, according as we take the one method or the other. There is an easy, superficial way of reading down a chapter; and there is a bent, real, intense, intelligent searching into every word and every syllable. Mark the promise given to Adam, "In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread," and the promise applies to the natural and to the spiritual bread. Therefore the soul that will eat bread must do it with pains, perseverance, and patience.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,9th series, p. 126 (see also Fifty Sermons,1874, p. 314).
We observe in these words two things:
I. The true motive to beneficence: "offering unto the Lord." Our offerings must be gifts to the Lord. Everything in life depends on the motive from which it springs. Man is what his motives are; he is no better and no worse. The highest and purest motive is that of doing all unto the Lord.
II. The true measure of beneficence: that which we feel to cost us something. Giving must always be tending towards sacrifice and self-denial. Having loveas the impulse to our benevolence, its measure will be determined by the nature of the case which appeals for our help and also by the means which God has placed at our disposal.
E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes,p. 31.
References: 2 Samuel 24:25. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons in Country Churches,3rd series, p. 280. 1 Samuel 24 Parker, vol. vii., p. 222.