My God and My Country

Excerpts From a Discourse on Meekness

By Matthew Henry; Edited by Doktor Riktor Von Zhades

Study the cross of our Lord Jesus

Did we but know more of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, we should experience more of the fellowship of his sufferings. Think often how and in what manner he suffered: see him led as a lamb to the slaughter, and arm yourselves with the same mind. Think also why and for what end he suffered, that you may not in any thing contradict the design of your dying Saviour, nor receive his grace in vain. Christ died as the great peacemaker, to take down all partition-walls, to quench all threatening flames, and to reconcile his followers, not only to God, but one to another, by the slaying of all enemies. Ephesians 2:14, 16. The apostle often prescribes a believing regard to the sufferings of Christ as a powerful allay to all sinful and intemperate heats, as Ephesians. 5:2; Philippians 2:5, (and other scriptures) Those who would show forth the meek and humble life of Christ in their mortal bodies, must bear about with them continually "the dying of the Lord Jesus." The ordinance of the Lord's supper, in which we show forth the Lord's death and the new testament in his blood, must therefore be improved by us for this blessed end, as a love-feast, at which all our sinful passions must be laid aside; and a marriage-feast, where the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is a considerable part of the wedding-garment. The forgiving of injuries, and a reconciliation to our brother, is both a necessary branch of our preparation for that ordinance, and a good evidence and instance of our profiting by it.