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SABBATH SCRIPTURE READINGS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT: Spiritual Meditations from Genesis 1 - 2 Kings 11
Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was considered by many the greatest Scots preacher of his day. This volume contains over 500 pages of personal musings upon every chapter from Genesis - 2 Kings 11. Sadly, Chalmers died before he completed the Old Testament.
From October 1841 - May 1847 Chalmers compiled these "Sabbath Readings" as he systematically worked through every chapter in the New Testament and Genesis 1 - 2 Kings 11. Like Augustine's "Confessions", these meditations are primarily written in the form and language of prayer. Here is Chalmers at his very best!
"They are precious fragments of immortal thought." - Charles H. Spurgeon
"Thomas Chalmers was the colossus of 19th century Scottish Christianity. His high eminence as a public figure did not preclude his deep humility of heart. In this volume we see the great man tender and childlike before God, willing to be taught and honest about his many struggles within, both with sin and comprehension of the Word. Chalmers becomes a welcome and friendly companion as we share in his meditations. " - Pastor Roger Salter
"Valuable insights from Thomas Chalmers drawn from his Sabbath meditations on Scripture. These are delightful and especially helpful." - Dr. Derek Thomas
"Thomas Chalmers' conversion was one of the great turning points in the history of the Church of Scotland. His personal investment in the pastoral and theological education of the core group of men who became the leading lights of the evangelical awakening in Scotland in the nineteenth century is one of the great stories of God's display of his sovereignty in the building up of the church. My own copy of Chalmers Life and Works comes right out of the library of the now-defunct United Free College Library of Glasgow: given to me as a gift by my mother many years ago. One of the choicest parts of that 13-volume treasure is Chalmers' Sabbath Readings, and so I am especially glad to commend these 'soul-fatting' messages to a new generation of readers." - Dr. J. Ligon Duncan
Thomas Carlyle said of Chalmers: "It is not often that the world has seen men like Thomas Chalmers, nor can the world afford to forget them; or in its most careless mood, be willing to. Probably the time is coming when it will be more apparent than it is now to everyone, that here, intrinsically, was the chief Scottish man of his time - a man possessed of such massive geniality of intellect as belonged to no other man. What a grand simplicity, broad humour, blent so kindly with enthusiasm, ardour and blazing thought - a man of such noble valour, strength and piety - above all things, of such perfect veracity, I have not met with in these times. Honour to him, honour belongs to him, and to the essential work he did - an everlasting continuance among the possessions of this world"
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THOMAS CHALMERS (1780-1847)
Sabbath Scripture Readings
Oct. 1841
Matthew 13 "The Sower"
When my Saviour speaks let me ever be attentive to hear Him - Save me, O God, from the withdrawing process and give me fully to share in the advancing process which obtains under the economy of grace. Let me give earnest heed to the things that are spoken--that, having this, more may be granted to me, and so as that I may increase in the knowledge of God, and be more and more instructed in the mysteries of His kingdom. Enable me, O God, so as to apply as to find my own place in the parable of the sower, and read there what my infirmities and wants are. How often then have I reason to fear that I occupy a stage even behind the first class of hearers--reading so mechanically, or hearing so listlessly that the word does not light upon me at all, or become the object of recognition so much as for an instant. But even when it does, how often is it on the understanding only, whence it slips from the memory, in a moment dispossessed or taken away. Or when it does make an impression on the heart or conscience, how marvelously soon is that impression dissipated among the vanities of the world, and the sympathies of social life with those before whom I deny Christ by my silence-- because the shame of a godly profession operates upon me with all the influence which persecution had in former ages.
But the place to which I most gravitate, and against which I most need to guard myself, is that of the third class of hearers--in whom the word is choked by weeds and thorns; because there is a depth of soil in me for the abiding and the practical--for a fixed ruling passion which might supplant every other, or at least subordinate every other. But that soil is pre-occupied with thorns, so as to stint the room and growth of a principle of grace in me. If not a love for the riches of this world, it is at least the care of this world in some one of its varieties--sometimes a diseased and anxious feeling of insecurity for my property--sometimes a brooding sense of irritation at the injustice which I either feel or fancy-- sometimes a taste for occupations distinct from those which subserve the furtherance of the spiritual life, and at all times a general overhanging and overweening carnality. These are the several vexations of the vain show in which I walk, and which would cheat me of my eternity.
O my God, let every plant which Thou hast not planted be rooted up from my heart. Deposit there the good seed and grant that--refreshed and fertilized by living water - it may bring forth fruit abundantly. Since the wheat and tares must by Thy Sovereign ordination , grow together in this world, teach me to walk in wisdom to those which are without, to endure the contradiction of sinners and to do good unto all men, though more especially to the household of faith. For the growth of the kingdom of heaven in my own heart, may this weak, this little faith of mine, be increased and strengthened. May it overshadow the whole man. May it germinate the deeds of new obedience, and make them acceptable through Jesus Christ. For the growth of the kingdom of heaven in the world, may I be a leaven for good in my family and neighbourhood and let my light shine with a converting influence on the souls of others.--O my God, I would give up all for Christ.
This day I have felt the preciousness of union with Him. May He be to me as a hidden treasure. May I abide in Him that He may abide in me and cause me to abound in much fruit. O my God, let Him be unto me as a pearl of great price-- seeing that he who hath the Son hath life. May my union with Him be perfected; and give me experimentally to feel the force and significance of those images which, though regarded as mystical by the world at large, are realized in the experience of advanced believers when they feel themselves united with Christ, as branches are with a vine, as stones with a building, whereof He is the chief corner-stone, as members are with a body whereof He is the Head. O Lord may I be found among the good on that day when Christ cometh to make up His jewels, severing the wicked from among the just. Let me be well instructed in the mysteries of Thy kingdom, and let the word of Christ dwell in me richly in all wisdom.
Let not Christ be lightly esteemed by me. Let me honour the Son even as I honour the Father. On this last Sabbath of the year may He so shine in my heart, that even from this time forward I may prize Him as all my desire and all my salvation.
Sabbath Scripture Readings
Jan. 1842
Matthew 14
Herod could respect an oath, and feel what was due to the company around him, yet gave himself to the most aggravated licentiousness. Let not, O God, my sense of honour, or of any social virtue whatever, buoy me up against the consciousness of a deficient purity, whether in laxity of thoughts or actions. Let me cultivate with all strenuousness the grace of a holy abstinence from all evil propensities and evil imaginations.
And while I shun the example of wicked men, let me make a study of the character and doings of my Saviour. And what a number of lessons crowd upon us from the several passages of His history. Here within a short compass we see His compassion in healing the sick - compassion too in feeding the hungry; relieving all the varieties of actual distress, though a sound political economy in coincidence with His own example, forbids the impohicy of making certain provision for all the varieties of eventual distress - piety in looking up to heaven as the source of all our earthly blessings - and frugality in gathering up the fragments of the meal, and not suffering even that food to be wasted which He had produced miraculously and could have multiplied at pleasure.
And O what a needful lesson is given to us, by the retirement of our Saviour from the scene of beneficence to the solitude of devotion. - Give me, O Lord, thus to alternate duty with prayer and prayer with duty. What a sad rebuke upon my habits and history is conveyed by this passage in the life of Jesus Christ. Pour on me, O God, the Spirit of grace and supplication. Be Thou, O God, a very present help in the time of trouble--and more especially in the time of temptation. Forgive, O Lord, my transgression. May Christ appear in the midst of this darkness and tumult and so appear as to become the object not of my dread, but of my confidence. Let not my faith give way under a sense of delinquency, however foul and however recent. But, O God, however bold in the sense of pardon, save me from the boldness of presumptuous iniquity; and let the remainder of my days be spent in peace and holiness - in the worship and service of the Son of God.
I feel as if a great lesson hung on the efficacy of a touch, though it was only the hem of the Saviour's garment. I feel as if it corresponded to faith in His name, when the power of conception was dull and feeble - so that we could frame no apprehension of His person. When I labour under the want of a lively manifestation, let the sound of His name uphold my confidence and be as ointment poured forth. But, O my God, that this confidence might continue undisturbed, do Thou cleanse my heart of all regard for iniquity.
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