“I am determined” said an old saint, “never to speak of a man’s virtues to his face, or of his faults behind his back.” Noble determination! But, alas! alas! how little it is acted upon. We generally reverse the order; we flatter people to their face and blacken them behind their back. The Lord deliver us from this sinful and shameful practice! It is most assuredly of the devil. We want to be more faithful in speaking to people—more gracious in speaking of them. If we see anything wrong in a person let us go directly to him and speak plainly; and if we have nothing good to say of him, let us graciously draw the curtain of silence around him. This would save a world of mischief; it would prevent untold sorrow and heart-burning. “Speak not evil one of another, brethren” (James 4:11)
(C H Mackintosh)
Golden Nugget Number 357
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It is of the utmost importance to distinguish between what Christ builds, and what man builds. The “gates of hell” will assuredly prevail against all that is merely of man; and hence it would be a fatal mistake to apply to man’s building words that only apply to Christ’s. Man may build with “wood, hay stubble,” alas! He does – but all that our Lord Christ builds shall stand for ever. The stamp of eternity is upon every work of His hand. All praise to His glorious name.
(C H Mackintosh. Nugget suggested by an English subscriber.)
Golden Nugget Number 348
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God enters into all our little trials and sorrows, conflicts and exercises, as if He had nothing else to think of.
C.H.Mackintosh
He enters into all our little trials and sorrows, conflicts and exercises, as if He had nothing else to think of. Each one has the undivided attention and sympathy of that large loving heart, in all that may arise in our passage through this scene of trial and sorrow. He has gone through it all. He knows, as we say, every step of the road. We can discern His blessed footprints all across the desert; and look up to the opened heavens and see Him, a glorified Man, but the same Jesus who was down here upon earth — His circumstances changed, but not His tender, loving, sympathising heart; “The same yesterday, today, and for ever”.
Golden Nugget Number 297
(C H Mackintosh)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton-on-the-Naze, CO14 8QD UK
The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:6) with a summons designed only for the ears and hearts of His own. Not one uncircumcised ear shall hear—not one un-renewed heart be moved. The dead in Christ, including, as we believe, the Old Testament saints, as well as those of the New, who shall have departed in the faith of Christ—all those shall hear that blessed sound, and come forth from their sleeping places. All the living saints shall hear it and be changed in a moment. And oh! What a change! The poor crumbling tabernacle of clay exchanged for a glorified body, like unto the body of Jesus.
Look at yonder bent and withered frame—that body racked with pain, and worn out with years of acute suffering. It is the body of a saint. How humiliating to see it like that! Yes, but wait a little. Let but the trumpet sound, and in one moment that poor crushed and withered frame shall be changed, and made like to the glorified body of the descending Lord.
And there, in yonder mental hospital is a poor patient. He has been there for years. He is a saint of God. How mysterious! True; we cannot fathom the mystery; it lies beyond our present narrow range. But so it is; that poor patient is a saint of God, an heir of glory. He too shall hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and leave his illness behind him forever, while he mounts into the heavens, in his glorified body, to meet his descending Lord.
Oh! What a brilliant moment! How many sick beds will be vacant then! What marvellous changes shall then take place! How the heart bounds at the thought, and longs to sing, in full chorus, that lovely hymn,
Christ, the Lord, will come again, None shall wait for Him in vain: I shall then His glory see: Christ will come and call for me. Amen and Amen!
Finally, as if to complete the picture, he says, “when I come again.” (Luke 10: 35 KJV) He awakens in the heart by these last words, “the blessed hope” of seeing him again. What a lovely picture! And yet it is all a divine reality. It is the simple story of our blessed Jesus who, in His tender compassion, looked upon us in our low and utterly hopeless condition, left His eternal dwelling-place of light and love, took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh, was made of a woman, made under the law, lived a spotless life, and fulfilled a perfect ministry down here for 33 years, and finally died on the cross as a perfect atonement for sin so that God might be just and the Justifier of any poor, ungodly, convicted sinner that simply trusts in Jesus.
Yes, dear reader, whoever you are, high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, Jesus has done all this; and He is now at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. The One who was nailed to the cross for us, is now on the throne. Eternal Justice has wreathed His sacred brow with the wreath of victory, and that, be it remembered, on our behalf. Nor is this all. He has said, “I will come again.” Precious words! Would you be glad to see Him? Do you know Him as the Good Samaritan? Have you felt His loving hand binding up your spiritual wounds? Have you known the healing virtues of His oil, and the restoring, invigorating, and cheering influence of His wine? Have you heard Him speak the thrilling words, “Take care of him”? If so, then, surely, you will be glad to see His face: you will cherish in your heart’s tender affections the blessed hope of seeing Him as He is and of being like Him and with Him forever. The Lord grant it may be so with you, beloved reader, and then you will be able to appreciate the immense difference between the law and the gospel — between what we ought to do for God and what God has done for us — between what we are to Him and what He is to us — between “do and live” and “live and do” — between “the righteousness of the law” and “the righteousness of faith.”
C H Mackintosh would not allow his “thoughts to indulge in fulsome praise (of men) – rather to recognise the grace of God vouchsafed to His servant,
C.H.Mackintosh
Charles Henry Mackintosh was born in October 1820, at Glenmalure Barricks, County Wicklow, Ireland, the son of the captain of a Highland regiment. Mackintosh was converted at the age of eighteen through the letters of a devout sister, and the prayerful reading of J. N. Darby’s Operations of the Spirit. When he was twenty-four years of age, he opened a private school at Westport, but it was not long before he concluded he must give himself entirely to the ministry of the Word of God, in writing and in public speaking. Soon thereafter he felt led to establish a periodical, which he continued to edit for twenty-one years, Things New and Old.
The American author of a brief obituary remarked that he would not allow his “thoughts to indulge in fulsome praise (of men) – rather to recognise the grace of God vouchsafed to His servant
Mr. Mackintosh took a great interest in, and actively participated in, the great revival of 1859 and 1860. He died on November 2, 1896, and was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, awaiting the resurrection morn.
How truly delightful and refreshing to turn to the only perfect Man who ever trod this earth! His path was indeed an isolated one — none more so. He had no sympathy with the scene around Him. The world knew Him not. ‘He came to His own [Israel], and His own received Him not‘ (John 1:11). ‘I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none‘ (Psalm 69:20). Even His own beloved disciples failed to sympathize with, or understand Him. They slept on the mount of transfiguration in the presence of His glory and they slept in the Garden of Gethsemane in the presence of His agony. They roused Him out of His sleep with their unbelieving fears and were continually intruding upon Him with their ignorant questions and foolish notions.
How did He meet all this? In perfect grace, patience and tenderness. He answered their questions; He corrected their notions; He hushed their fears; He solved their difficulties; He met their need; He made allowance for their infirmities; He gave them credit for devotedness in the moment of desertion; He looked at them through His own loving eyes and loved them, notwithstanding all. ‘Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end‘ (John 13:1)
Christian reader, let us seek to drink into our blessed Master’s spirit and walk in His footsteps. Then our isolation will be of the right kind, and though our path may be narrow, the heart will be large.
(C.H.Mackintosh)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton-on-the-Naze, CO14 8QD UK
Hence we may see how very real and practical is this question of how to study Scripture. It is intimately connected with our entire moral and spiritual condition, our daily walk, our actual habits and ways. God has given us His Word to form our character, to govern our conduct and shape our course. Therefore, if the Word has not a formative influence and a governing power over us, it is the height of folly to think of storing up a quantity of scriptural knowledge in the intellect. It can only puff us up and deceive us. It is a most dangerous thing to traffic in unfelt truth; it brings on a heartless indifference, levity of spirit, insensibility of conscience, which is appalling to people of serious piety. There is nothing that tends so to throw us completely into the hands of the enemy as a quantity of head knowledge of truth without a tender conscience, a true heart, an upright mind. The mere profession of truth which does not act on the conscience and come out in the life, is one of the special dangers of the day in which our lot is cast. Better by far only to know a little in reality and power, than profess a quantity of truth that lies powerless in the region of the understanding, exerting no formative influence upon the life. I would much rather be honestly in Romans 7 than fictitiously in Romans 8. In the former case I am sure to come right, but in the latter there is no telling what I may come to.
(Short Papers, C H Mackintosh) Golden Nugget Number 267 Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton-on-the-Naze, CO14 8QD UK
Much is involved in these three words, “walked with God.
C H MCKINTOSH
And, oh! How much is involved in these three words, “walked with God.” What separation and self-denial! What holiness and moral purity! What grace and gentleness! What humility and tenderness! And yet what zeal and energy! What patience and long-suffering! And yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! To walk with God comprehends everything within the range of the divine life, whether active or passive. It involves the knowledge of God’s character as He has revealed it. It involves, too, the intelligence of the relationship in which we stand to Him. It is not a mere living by rules and regulations, nor laying down plans of action, nor in resolutions to go hither and thither, to do this or that. To walk with God is far more than any or all of these things.
The Christian should regard himself as the channel through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world;[through Christian giving] and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, ‘for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.’ (Prov 11:24) This places the believer in a place of sweetest privilege and at the same time of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibitor of the grace of Him on whom he believes
.Golden Nugget Number 217
(Notes on Genesis C.H.Mackintosh. p25)
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