C H Spurgeon Commenting and Commentaries, "Dr. Henry Mills thus wrote of Leighton's works:—"There is a spirit in them f never met with in any other human writings, nor can I read many lines in them without being moved." We need scarcely commend this truly heavenly work. It is a favorite with: all spiritual men.

I might easily settle this question by laying down the principle that no duty enjoined by Christ, can ever be neglected without damage. I might show how many shut their eyes throughout life to the nature of saving religion and refuse to consider what it really costs to be a Christian. I might describe how at last, when life is ebbing away, they wake up and make a few spasmodic efforts to turn to God. I might tell you how they find to their amazement, that repentance and conversion are no such easy matters as they had supposed, and that it costs "a great sum" to be a true Christian. They discover that habits of pride, and sinful indulgence, and love of ease, and worldliness — are not so easily laid aside as they had dreamed. And so, after a faint struggle, they give up in despair, and leave the world hopeless, graceless and unfit to meet God! They had flattered themselves all their days, that religion would be easy work when they once took it up seriously. But they open their eyes too late, and discover for the first time that they are ruined because they never counted the cost.

Notwithstanding this double fence of God's command and preventive afflictions, yet sin is too hard for the best of men; their corruptions carry them through all to sin. And when it is so, not only does the Spirit work internally, but Providence also works externally in order to subdue them. The ways of sin are not only made bitter to them by the remorse of conscience, but by those afflictive rods upon the outward man, with which God also follows it.

I think that John in this passage meant, and we will consider him as meaning, something more— namely, he would have us know that we personally have eternal life by having us know that we do personally believe in Jesus. It is one thing to know that every believer has eternal life; but it is quite another thing to know that I am a believer so as to have eternal life myself. I have read of one who fell into the water, and as he was sinking he saw a rainbow in the sky above him. "Ah," thought he, "God has made a covenant not to destroy the earth with a flood, and yet it is no comfort to me, for I fear I shall be drowned." The largest provisions of grace avail us nothing unless we have a personal interest in them. It is true that every believer has eternal life, but what if I am not a believer?

My present business is, to exhort others unto the contemplation of it, though it be but a little, a very little, a small portion of it, that I can conceive; and less than that very little that I can express. Yet may it be my duty to excite not only myself, but others also, unto due inquiries after it; unto which end I offer the things ensuing. 1. Labour that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for such heavenly contemplations.

Legh Richmond was born at Liverpool, on January 29, 1772, where his father, Dr. Henry Richmond, practiced as a physician; his mother was an estimable woman, of superior mind and acquirements. To the extent of her religious knowledge, she taught him, and she especially encouraged him in reading the Scriptures. Thus was laid the foundation of those clear views of Divine truth which afterwards distinguished him as a minister of Christ. Richmond wrote, The Dairyman's Daughter," which is narrated and uploaded here on this site.

He it is in whom our nature, which was debased as low as hell by apostasy from God, is exalted above the whole creation. Our nature, in the original constitution of it, in the persons of our first parents, was crowned with honour and dignity. The image of God, wherein it was made, and the dominion over the lower world wherewith it was intrusted, made it the seat of excellence, of beauty, and of glory.

If we were heartily devoted to our work, it would be done more vigorously, and more seriously, than it is by the most of us. How few ministers do preach with all their might, or speak about everlasting joys and everlasting torments in such a manner as may make men believe that they are in good earnest! It would make a man's heart ache, to see a company of dead, drowsy sinners sitting under a minister, and not hear a word that is likely to quicken or awaken them.