‘With the precious blood of Christ’ (1 Peter 1:19)
The blood of Jesus is the price of our redemption, the object of our faith, the ground of our peace, the subject of our meditation, and our constant plea at the throne of grace. It satisfied divine justice and speaks peace to the humbled sinner’s heart. It overcomes Satan, and cleanses from all sin. It purges the conscience from dead works, and leads us to joy in God.
We build on it as our foundation, flee to it as our refuge, look to it as the cure for sin, and sing of it as the joy of our heart. It has made a perfect, a satisfactory, an infinite atonement; and no sinner can perish who relies upon it, washes in it and pleads it before God.
It is indeed precious blood! It is invaluable! Whenever you feel guilt on your conscience, fears rising in your mind, or a gloom come over your spirit; look to, meditate upon, make use of the precious blood of Jesus. It made peace. It cleanses, heals, and sanctifies; and we could not live happy one day without it. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. To this alone we must look as the foundation of our hope, and the ground of our peace.
Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power;
Till all the ransom’d church of God
Be saved to sin no more.
THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)
Journal Jottings
Following his first efforts preaching at both services in a church, James Smith wrote: ‘In speaking the Lord gave me liberty, I spoke with freedom, and enjoyed the exercise. The people appeared to hear with profit, and many said that they had found it to be a good day. Thus ended one of the most trying, and one of the most important days of my life.
At its close, I rashly said that I never would attempt to speak again, and that no man should induce me to do so, but what man cannot effect, God can accomplish with ease; and the way of man is not in himself, for it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
My mind now became as much exercised as ever on the subject of the ministry, and I became low spirited and depressed. I was tempted to wish that I had never spoken in the Lord’s name, and hoped I should never be asked to do so again. O how weak, how ignorant, and unfit for such a solemn work did I now appear to myself to be.’