‘I am a stranger in the earth’  (Psalm 119:19)

Dear friends, we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth, as all our fathers were; our days are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. We are born from above and are bound for glory. We are a distance from home, where our family, our treasure, and our hearts are found.

Here we have no fixed residence; nor should we have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness; instead, we should reject them. We are called to submit to many inconveniences. The Bible is our light, our food, our joy, and our directory. We want a guide, a guard, a companion, a comforter; but Jesus has engaged to fill each of these offices.

We should pray for the peace of the country where we are pilgrims; we should not be meddlers with its concerns, but keep ourselves detached, we should be thankful for every advantage, but set and keep our affections on things above. We should neither be impatient nor reluctant in reference to going Home, but submit to our Father’s will; we should consider ill-treatment as permissible to do us good; and contrast the present with our own beloved country and home.

There is my house and portion fair,
My treasure and my heart are there,
And my abiding home;
For me my elder brethren stay,
And angels beckon me away
And Jesus bids me come.

THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)

Journal Jottings

‘O that I could daily weep over sin, and the dishonour I do to God, and his cause. May I never be a whited sepulchre, or hear Jesus say to me at last, “Depart from me, for I never approved of you!”‘