05.00. Help and Consolation from the Sanctuary

Help and Consolation from the Sanctuary George Everard, 1868 To walk with God, to please Him more and more, to abide in fellowship with His Son, and to abound in the fruits of righteousness — must be the daily aim of every true-hearted Christian. But to do this requires continual, painstaking effort, the use of all available means of grace, and waiting perpetually on the Lord for the promised help of His free Spirit.

If you would thus live and walk, remember . . .
that every moment you need help from Christ,
that Christ has just the help suited to your necessity, and
that He exceedingly delights to bestow it upon you.

Remember to take care that the heart is right. The heart is the mainspring of all worship and all obedience. Out of it are the outcomes of life and death. Let the heart be warm with love to the Savior, and desirous of greater likeness to Him — and there cannot fail to be seen in the life something of His holiness, something of His meek and lowly spirit.

Remember to bring religion into everything you do. Not one single word or action of the day ought to be considered outside the sphere of its influence. It has been my aim to set this forth in a previous work, "Day by Day," and it cannot be too much pressed upon the consciences of those who profess to be the Lord’s followers. To practice daily self-denial in little things, to aim at improving the least opportunities of benefitting the weakest of the flock, never to reckon there is a moment when we are free from the solemn responsibility of glorifying God — this is a blessed privilege no less than our bounden duty.

Remember that in all your failures in doing this, in all the discouragements you meet with from a backsliding spirit, from the power of sin within and of the Tempter and the world without — it is your strength to fall back on foundation principles. You may ever look for a fresh grant of pardon through the death of your Surety. You may ever look for a fresh measure of the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit.

Remember to trace the hand of God in trials of every description. Whatever the instrument is — be quite sure that God Himself has appointed the trial, and that it is in kindness and faithfulness to draw you nearer to Himself.

Remember that the least of Christ gives more true and abiding happiness then the most of the world; and when the choice lies between them choose Christ in preference to all beside.

Remember to make the most of each returning Sunday. The Lord’s day is our Father’s gift of love, to fill our souls with the breath of His Spirit, and thus to speed us on our voyage across the waves of this troublesome world. For this purpose should we rejoice to frequent the courts of the Lord, and join in hearty worship with His people. Never ought there to be a "Home Sunday" except in cases of real necessity. But there are many who have no option. However much they might desire it, they cannot possibly take their place with the assembled congregation. For such especially the following pages have been written.

They are suited for invalids, for those watching by the sick, and for those detained at home by family duties. There are others too in delicate health, who are unable, when the weather is rough or the distance is long, to be present in the House of God, and who may welcome some assistance in the study of God’s Word. The voyager across the wide ocean, and possibly some of our fellow countrymen sojourning in other lands, and who possess not the same Christian privileges which we enjoy at home, may here find words of guidance and consolation. The subjects chosen are plain and practical, and dwell chiefly on the leading truths of our most holy faith. The more these are understood and received into the heart, the more will people find peace in days of trial and be fruitful in every good work.

If subjects of controversy have here and there been slightly touched, it is because the writer feels deeply the perils to which men’s souls are exposed through the errors that now unhappily so widely prevail. In a practical work like the present, he would have preferred altogether to omit such topics — but at the present day he dare not do so; he trusts however that whatever has been written has been in charity and love, and that not one word will be found needlessly to wound those that may hold opinions differing from his own. The various seasons of the Christian year have not been forgotten, and without difficulty the chapter may be found which is suitable to each one of them.

Let me add a needful caution. Never let this or any other book take the place of that Word which is "given by inspiration of God," and is all of it, from cover to cover, "as silver purified seven times in the fire." There is doubtless a danger in the multiplication of religious books, for they become positively injurious if they stand in the way of a diligent, prayerful study of the pure Word. The best that a work like this can hope to accomplish is to lead its readers more to value and better to understand the precious truths of that Word, and to apply more in detail its precepts, promises, doctrines, and narratives, to their own present necessities.

I would commend to the blessing of our gracious Father this attempt to minister to the spiritual welfare of Christ’s flock; and may I earnestly request each reader, while perusing any portion of this work, to add much fervent prayer for the effectual teaching of the Holy Spirit, and also to join with the writer in asking the same grace from above on behalf of every one into whose hands a copy of it may fall.

"O Almighty God, who has built Your Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head Cornerstone; grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable unto You; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."