The Twentieth of April.FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE --- 1 John 2:12, 13."I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one." --- 1 John 2:12, 13. God has saints of several degrees and sizes, and some of them have more communion with him than others. From among the multitude, he chose twelve to be with him; from among the twelve he chose three, Peter, James, and John, who were of the privy council; from among the three he chose out John, as his perculiar darling and bosom favourite, of whom it is said five times in St. John's Gospel, that "he was the disciple whom Jesus loved." So now, at this day, God hath his babes who live upon milk and nothing else; he "hath children also," who know their Father, and are assured of his love; moreover, he has his "young men, who go out to war, and fight the Lord's battles victoriuosly;" and he has "fathers in Israel, who abound in gray-headed experience and wisdom; for they knew him from the beginning, and they remembered his words." It is a great mercy to be one of "God's little ones," yea, the least of all: to be a star, though not of the first magnitude; to be a disciple, though not a John, not one of the three, nor one of the twelve, nor one of the seventy; but to be a John, a darling, and to lean on his breast, to lie in his bosom, oh how great a mercy. It is a mercy to be new-born, to be taken into the family of God, and the household of faith; but to grow up to a pefect stature, to be a man in Christ Jesus, oh how great a mercy! Lord, thou knowest my desire; perfect that which concerns thy servant, yea, that which concerns all thy servants. It does not yet appear We would no longer lie, |