(Thomas Brooks, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness“, 1662)
“Having nothing—and yet possessing all things.” 2 Cor. 6:10
This is a riddle the world cannot understand. A holy man
cannot be a poor man. A holy man is always the richest
man. The riches of a Christian have no bottom. All a
saint’s bags, are bottomless bags.
Experience tells us that unholy men’s bags, purses, coffers,
and mints—may be drawn dry. But the treasury, the riches
of a saint—can never be exhausted, for he possesses all
things in Christ and with Christ! The Christian has the
God of all—he has Him who has all.
Though he has nothing in hand—yet he has all things
in hope. A holy man is the richest man in the world,
for he has the great and glorious God engaged by many
thousand promises to own him, to bless him, to stand
by him, to give grace and glory to him, and to withhold
nothing from him that may be good for him.
A holy man may make his boast of God, and say,
“God is mine! God is mine! He is my great all; He is my
Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things.
Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken–in building their kingdoms. But God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow–and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth’s saddest failure–up to Heaven’s glory! J.R. Miller
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