Essex Remembrancer Psalm 119:5 O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes! I. A TRULY GOOD MAN WILL BE CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD. He is as much concerned to avoid secret as open sins; he seeks intently a temper devout and spiritual; he finds an unutterable pleasure in striving, and watching, and praying that not a single particular in the Christian temper or conduct may be found absent from him. II. A GOOD MAN WILL AT SOME PERIODS BE ESPECIALLY CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD. 1. Perhaps an extensive and an affecting sight of the Divine holiness is instrumental in producing this improvement. 2. A fixed and an admiring contemplation of the grace of the Gospel is sometimes productive of a similar effect. 3. Affliction is sometimes the forerunner of this enlarged concern. III. WHEN A GOOD MAN IS THUS ESPECIALLY CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD, HIS TEMPORAL LOT WILL BE RENDERED SUBSERVIENT TO THE PROMOTION OF HIS PERSONAL RELIGION. "O that my ways," my general circumstances, and the daily and hourly incidents which occur, "were directed to keep Thy statutes," to advance my personal religion. IV. IN ORDER TO THE TEMPORAL LOT OF A GOOD MAN BECOMING THUS SUBSERVIENT TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HIS PERSONAL RELIGION, HE MUST BE AIDED BY A DIVINE INTERPOSITION. 1. In the form of a wise and benevolent appointment. 2. In the form of a gracious influence. (Essex Remembrancer.) Parallel Verses KJV: O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! |
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