Sermons & Devotionals by Edward Payson

"What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God; if so he God will think upon us, that we perish not." Jonah 1:6 the preceding verses of this chapter, we are informed, that God gave a commission to the prophet Jonah, to go unto Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and denounce heavy judgments ag... Read More

"I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely, after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my th... Read More

"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, peace be unto you" Luke 24:36 we are studying the character of a person of whom we know little, but whom we have particular reasons for wishing to know thoroughly, every part of his past and present conduct becom... Read More

"If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him" Luke 17:3, 4 On hearing this passage read, you will probably conclude, that t... Read More

"The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God" Psalm 10:4 In this psalm we have a full length portrait of a careless, unawakened sinner, drawn by the unerring pencil of truth; and so perfect is the resemblance, that were it not for the blinding influence of sin, every su... Read More

"Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end" Isaiah 9:6, 7 the prece... Read More

"All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." Joshua 14:14 are the words of Job. The resolution which they express was formed by him when he was in the most wretched state, to which a good man can be reduced. The overwhelming weight of his afflictions, combined with the sudde... Read More

"For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" Genesis 15:16 words were addressed by Jehovah to Abraham, when he first promised to give his posterity the land of Canaan. While giving him this promise God informed him, that it would not be fulfilled till after the lapse of a considerable number o... Read More

Often when the church thinks itself in the most imminent danger, when its friends are ready to cry in despair, All these things are against us, our destruction is inevitable; angels are lost in wonder in view of the means which divine wisdom is, even then, employing to effect its deliverance and tur... Read More

"It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor" Isaiah 27:11 My hearers, there is no error or mistake into which the wayward mind of man can fall, against which a warning or caution is not given us in the ... Read More

"Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey." Jeremiah 45:5. In a preceding chapter, we are informed, that God directed Jeremiah to write in a book all the warnings and threatenings ... Read More

"When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord" Leviticus 23:39 If we review attentively the religious ordinances which God has appointed, we can scarcely fail to perceive, that he has usually passed by all the inventions of men, and adopted institutions which w... Read More

"All things were created by him and for him" Colossians 1:16 By whom were all these worlds and beings made? is probably the first question, which a view of the created universe would excite in a seriously inquisitive mind. For what purpose and with what view were they created? would no less probably... Read More

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thessalonians 5:23 This prayer of the apostle for the universal sanctification of the Thessalonian Christians, leads us to notice a di... Read More

"And I set a great assembly against them" Nehemiah 5:7 When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, with a commission from the Persian monarch, appointing him governor of Judea, after the return of the Jews from captivity, he found that many evils and abuses had crept in among them, which it required all his wi... Read More

"O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Psalm 90:14 My hearers, should all the youth in this assembly express sincerely their secret wishes and inclinations, it can scarcely be doubted, that many of them would say something like this; I should wish to live ... Read More

"Have I been a wilderness to Israel? A land of darkness?" Jeremiah 2:31 To an ingenuous mind God never appears so irresistible, so overpowering, as when he addresses his creatures in the language of tender expostulation. He may speak in the loftiest accents of uncontrollable authority and almighty p... Read More

"And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and Wept; and as lie went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2 Samuel 18:33 With the character of Absalom, his unnatural rebellion, and his untimel... Read More

"He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." Proverbs 13:20 We have often reminded you that the terms wisdom and folly, wise and foolish, have a very different signification in the writings of Solomon, from that which they bear in the works of uninspire... Read More

"O Daniel, a man greatly beloved." (Daniel 10:11). One of the great excellences of Scripture is, that it points out to us the path of duty, not only by precept, but by example. Not to mention the perfect pattern of a holy life, which it sets before us in the character and conduct of Christ, it prese... Read More