The Christian's Consolation.
THE professed disciple of Christ who desponds and trembles, when he hears his Master calling him to go on to perfection, may derive courage and support from looking at the promises of Christ and at their Author. Among the blessings promised you will find everything which any man can need to assist him in arriving at perfection. There are promises of light and direction to find the path which leads to it; promises of assistance to walk in that path; promises of strength to resist and overcome all opposition; promises of remedies to heal us when wounded, of cordials to invigorate us when faint, and of most glorious rewards to crown the end of our course. You will hear Jehovah saying, fear not for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Though thou art in thyself but a worm, thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small as the dust. Look next at him who gives these promises. It is one who is almighty, and who therefore can fulfill them. It is one who cannot lie, and therefore will fulfill them. It is one who possesses all power in heaven and on earth; one whose treasures of grace are unsearchable and inexhaustible; one in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. With all this fullness, faith indissolubly unites us. Say, then, ye who despond and tremble when you contemplate the almost immeasurable distance between your own moral characters and that of Christ, what, except faith in these promises and their Author, is necessary, to support, encourage, and animate you in going on to perfection? If Christ himself is perfect; if faith makes you members of this perfect head; if it cause his fullness to flow into your souls,—then it is most evident that he can and will enable all, who exercise faith in him, to imitate his example, and finally to become perfect as he is perfect.
—Payson's Thoughts.