January 24

The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them. - Proverbs 12:26.

“HE that doeth righteousness is righteous,” and we know who hath said “the upright are his delight.” This is the characteristic of a real Christian. “The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live righteously, soberly, and godly in the present world.” It is thus “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.” Therefore it is that a man under the influence of this principle of righteousness is declared in the Scriptures to be more excellent than his unrighteous neighbour, however in other respects that neighbour may be distinguished. And this decision is according to truth. Let us endeavour to justify it.

Who among the sons of the earth can be put in comparison with the real Christian. The rich? But he has the true riches,-durable riches and righteousness, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” The honourable? But he is “great in the sight of the Lord;” he has the honour that cometh from God only. The learned? But he is made wise unto salvation; he has an unction from the Holy One, and knoweth all things. The conquering hero? But “he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit, than he that taketh a city.” He subdues enemies that vanquish all other victors,-he is more than a conqueror; and the Captain of his salvation thus eulogizes and rewards him. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, and I will write upon him my new name.”

Compared with a Christian, what was Adam in Paradise? What blessings are equal to the blessings of grace and redemption, the righteous man’s portion? These deliver from sin, death, and hell. What was the Garden of Eden to the righteous man’s home, “the new heaven, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”? What was the tree of life to the only true Source of a righteous man’s immortality, who “came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly”?

We as creatures were made by an exertion of wisdom and power, but we are saved by the manifold wisdom of God, and by the “exceeding greatness of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.”