PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 240,917 words · 342 reading sections
God'S Imitators
It is because a man knows himself to be beloved that therefore he is stimulated and encouraged to be an 'imitator of God' and, on the other hand, the sense of being God's child underlies all real imitation of Him. Imitation is natural to the child. It is a miserable home where a boy does not imitate his father, and it …
550 wordsSECTION 122What Children Of Light Should Be
'Walk as children of light.'--Eph. v. 8. It was our Lord who coined this great name for His disciples. Paul's use of it is probably a reminiscence of the Master's, and so is a hint of the existence of the same teachings as we now find in the existing Gospels, long before their day. Jesus Christ said, 'Believe in the l…
674 wordsSECTION 123What Children Of Light Should Be
This wide, general commandment of our text is sufficiently definite, thinks Paul; for if the light be in you it will naturally effloresce into all forms of beauty. Light is the condition of fruitfulness. Everywhere the vital germ is only acted upon by the light. No sunshine, no flowers; darkness produces thin, etiolate…
793 wordsSECTION 124What Children Of Light Should Be
II. Secondly, the general exhortation of my text widens out itself into this--test all things by Christ's approval of them. 'Proving what is well pleasing unto the Lord.' That, according to the natural construction of the Greek, is the main way by which the Apostle conceives that his general commandment of 'walking as…
690 wordsSECTION 125What Children Of Light Should Be
'The unfruitful works of darkness';--well, then, the darkness has its works, but though they be works they are not worth calling fruit. That is to say, nothing except the conduct which flows from union with Jesus Christ so corresponds to the man's nature and relations, or has any such permanence about it as to entitle …
537 wordsSECTION 126The Fruit Of The Light
'The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.'--Eph. v. 9 (R.V.). This is one of the cases in which the Revised Version has done service by giving currency to an unmistakably accurate and improved reading. That which stands in our Authorised Version, 'the fruit of the Spirit' seems to have b…
876 wordsSECTION 127The Fruit Of The Light
II. Now, secondly, notice the fruitfulness of this indwelling light. Of course the metaphor that light, like a tree, grows and blossoms and puts forth fruit, is a very strong one. And its very violence and incongruity help its force. Fruit is generally used in Scripture in a good sense. It conveys the notion of someth…
681 wordsSECTION 128The Fruit Of The Light
And such an effort has to take in hand all the circumference of our being, and to fix thoughts that wander, and to still wishes that clamour, and to empty hearts that are full of earthly loves, and to clear a space in minds that are crammed with thoughts about the transient and the near, in order that the mind may keep…
678 wordsSECTION 129The Fruit Of The Light
And then, again, he desires that each of us should try to make our own a fully developed, all-round perfection--_all_ goodness and righteousness and truth; of every sort, that is, and in every degree. We are all apt to cultivate graces of character which correspond to our natural disposition and make. We are all apt to…
488 wordsSECTION 130Pleasing Christ
'Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.'--Eph. v. 10. These words are closely connected with those which precede them in the 8th verse--'Walk as children of light.' They further explain the mode by which that commandment is to be fulfilled. They who, as children of light, mindful of their obligations and penetrated…
752 wordsSECTION 131Pleasing Christ
The meaning of being a Christian is that, in return for the gift of a whole Christ, I give my whole self to Him. 'Why call ye me Lord! Lord! and do not the things which I say?' If He is what He assuredly is to every one of us, nothing can be plainer than that we are thereby bound by obligations which are not iron, but …
662 wordsSECTION 132Pleasing Christ
So, brethren, here is the sufficient guide, not because it cumbers us with a mass of wretched little prescriptions such as a martinet might give, about all sorts of details of conduct. That is left to profitless casuists like the ancient rabbis. But the broad principles will effloresce into all manner of perfectnesses …
731 wordsSECTION 133Pleasing Christ
III. Again, notice that we have here an all-powerful motive for Christian life. The one thing which all other summaries of duty lack is motive power to get themselves carried into practice. But we all know, from our own happy human experience, that no motive which can be brought to bear upon men is stronger, when ther…
666 wordsSECTION 134Unfruitful Works Of Darkness
'And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.'--Eph. v. 11. We have seen in a former sermon that 'the fruit,' or outcome, 'of the Light' is a comprehensive perfection, consisting in all sorts and degrees of goodness and righteousness and truth. Therefore, the commandment, 'Wa…
740 wordsSECTION 135Unfruitful Works Of Darkness
And they are unfruitful because, whilst they last, they yield no real satisfaction. The Apostle could say to another Church with a certainty as to what the answer would be, 'What fruit had ye _then_'--when ye were doing them--'in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?' And the answer is 'None!' Of course, it is true th…
666 wordsSECTION 136Unfruitful Works Of Darkness
The need of it I do not require to illustrate at any length. But let me remind you that the devil has no more cunning way of securing a long lease of life for any evil than getting Christian people and Christian Churches to give it their sanction. What was it that kept slavery alive for centuries? Largely, that Christi…
698 wordsSECTION 137Unfruitful Works Of Darkness
This task is laid on the shoulders of all professing Christians. A _silent_ abstinence is not enough. No doubt, the best way, in some circumstances, to convict the darkness is to shine. Our holiness will convict sin of its ugliness. Our light will reveal the gloom. The presentation of a Christian life is the Christian …
736 wordsSECTION 138Paul'S Reasons For Temperance
And so, dear brethren, I bring this text to your hearts, and lay it upon your consciences. We may not all be called upon to speak; we are all called upon to _be_. You can shine, and by shining show how dark the darkness is. The obligation is laid upon us all; the commandment still comes to every Christian which was giv…
654 wordsSECTION 139Paul'S Reasons For Temperance
Our lives ought to make evil things ashamed to show their ugly faces. Christians should be, as it were, the incarnate conscience of a community. The Apostle is not thinking so much of words as of deeds, though words are not to be withheld when needful. The agent of reproof is 'the light,' which here is the designation …
687 wordsSECTION 140Paul'S Reasons For Temperance
Paul makes a daring, and, as some would think, an irreverent, comparison, when he proposes being 'filled with the Spirit' as the Christian alternative or substitute to being 'drunken with wine.' But the daring comparison suggests deep truth. The spurious exhilaration, the loosening of the bonds of care, the elevation a…
348 wordsSECTION 141Sleepers At Noonday
'Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,'--Eph. v. 14. This is the close of a short digression about 'light.' The 'wherefore' at the beginning of my text seems to refer to the whole of the verses that deal with that subject. It is as if the Apostle had …
747 wordsSECTION 142Sleepers At Noonday
Yes; and just as in a dream men are busy with baseless phantoms that vanish and are forgotten, and seem to themselves to be occupied, whilst all the while they are lying prone and passive, so the mass of us are sleep-walkers. What are many men who will be hurrying on to the Manchester Exchange on Tuesday? What are they…
813 wordsSECTION 143Sleepers At Noonday
II. Secondly, let me ask you to look at the summons to awake. It comes like the morning bugle to an army, 'Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.' Now, I am not going to waste your time by talking about the old, well-worn, interminable, and unprofitable controversy as to God's part and man's in this awaki…
866 wordsSECTION 144Sleepers At Noonday
The miracle of Goshen is reversed, in the case of many of us, the land is flashing in the sunshine, but within our houses there is midnight darkness, not because there is not light around, but because the shutters are shut. Oh, brethren, it is a solemn thing to choose the darkness rather than the light. And you do that…
263 wordsSECTION 145Redeeming The Time
'See, then, that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.'--Eph. v. 15, 16. Some of us have, in all probability, very little more 'time' to 'redeem.' Some of us have, in all probability, the prospect of many years yet to live. For both classes my text presents t…
719 wordsSECTION 146Redeeming The Time
I do not care whether you say that the end for which we live is the salvation of our souls, or whether you put it in other words, and say that it is the cultivation and perfecting of a Christ-like and God-pleasing character, or whether you admit still another aspect, and say that it is the intention of time to prepare …
738 wordsSECTION 147Redeeming The Time
II. Now, note secondly, how to make the most of the season. 'Redeeming the time,' says the Apostle. The figure is very simple and natural, and has only been felt to be difficult and obscure, because people have tried to ride the metaphor further than it was meant. The questions of who is the seller and what is the pri…
661 wordsSECTION 148Redeeming The Time
So here is a practical direction, walk strictly, accurately, looking to your feet; as a man would do who was upon what they call in the Alps an _arrête_. Suppose a narrow ridge of snow piled on the top of a ledge of rock, with a precipice of 5000 feet on either side, and a cornice of snow hanging over empty space. The …
725 wordsSECTION 149Redeeming The Time
Let me add one last motive which is not stated in my text, but is involved in the very idea of _opportunity_ or _season_--viz. that the time for the high and noble purposes of which I have been speaking is rigidly limited and bounded; and once past is irrevocable. The old, wise mythological story tells us that Occasion…
340 wordsSECTION 150The Panoply Of God
'Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.'--Eph. vi. 13. The military metaphor of which this verse is the beginning was obviously deeply imprinted on Paul's mind. It is found in a comparatively incomplete form in his earliest epistle, the…
668 wordsSECTION 151The Panoply Of God
II. To withstand these we must be armed against them before they come. The main point of the exhortation is this previous preparation. It is clear enough that it is no time to fly to our weapons when the enemy is upon us. Aldershot, not the battlefield, is the place for learning strategy. Belshazzar was sitting at his…
781 wordsSECTION 152The Panoply Of God
But waiting on God to receive our weapons from Him is but part of what is needful for our equipment. It is we who have to gird our loins and put on the breastplate, and shoe our feet, and take the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. The cumbrous armour of old days could only be pu…
687 wordsSECTION 153'The Girdle Of Truth'
'Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.'--Eph. vi. 14 (R.V.). The general exhortation here points to the habitual attitude of the Christian soldier. However many conflicts he may have waged, he is still to be ever ready for fresh assaults, for in regard to them he may be quite sure that to-morrow will…
669 wordsSECTION 154'The Girdle Of Truth'
II. The girdle is to be truth. The question immediately arises as to whether truth here means objective truth--the truth of the Gospel, or subjective truth, or, as we are accustomed to say, truthfulness. It would seem that the former signification is rather included in the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…
1,020 wordsSECTION 155'The Girdle Of Truth'
But God's truth must be received and its power submitted to, if it is to implant in us the supreme grace of perfect truthfulness. Our minds and hearts must be saturated with it by many an hour of solitary reflection, by meditation which will diffuse its aroma like a fragrant perfume through our characters, and by the h…
291 wordsSECTION 156'The Breastplate Of Righteousness'
'Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.'--Eph. vi. 14. There can be no doubt that in this whole context the Apostle has in mind the great passage in Isaiah lix. where the prophet, in a figure of extreme boldness, describes the Lord as arming Himself to deliver the oppressed faithful, and coming as a Redeemer …
757 wordsSECTION 157'The Breastplate Of Righteousness'
This injunction is continuously imperative upon all Christian soldiers. They are on the march through the enemy's country, and can never safely lay aside their armour. After all successes, and no less after all failures, we have still to arm ourselves for the fight, and it is to be remembered that the righteousness of …
289 wordsSECTION 158A Soldier'S Shoes
'Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.'--Eph. vi. 15. Paul drew the first draft of this picture of the Christian armour in his first letter. It is a finished picture here. One can fancy that the Roman soldier to whom he was chained in his captivity, whilst this letter was being written, unconsci…
689 wordsSECTION 159A Soldier'S Shoes
So, then, dear brother, the only way to realise and preserve 'the peace of God which passes understanding' is to fling ourselves manfully into the fight to which all Christ's soldiers are pledged and bound. The two conditions, though they seem to be opposite, will unite; for this is the paradox of the Christian life, t…
744 wordsSECTION 160A Soldier'S Shoes
There was an English commander, who died some years ago, who was sent for to the Horse Guards one day and asked, 'How long will it take for you to be ready to go to Scinde?' 'Half an hour,' said he; and in three-quarters he was in the train, on his road to reconquer a kingdom. That is how we ought to be; but we never s…
672 wordsSECTION 161A Soldier'S Shoes
Now, dear brethren, remember that this text is part of a commandment. We are to put on the shoes. How is that to be done? By a very simple way: a way which, I am afraid, a great many Christian people do not practise with anything like the constancy that they ought. For it is the Gospel that brings the peace, and if its…
359 wordsSECTION 162The Shield Of Faith
'Above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.'--Eph. vi. 16. There were two kinds of shields in use in ancient warfare--one smaller, carried upon the arm, and which could be used, by a movement of the arm, for the defence of threatened parts of the body …
842 wordsSECTION 163The Shield Of Faith
II. Consider next, the defence: 'the shield of faith.' Now, the Old Testament says things like this: 'Fear not, Abraham; I am thy Shield.' The psalmist invoked God, in a rapturous exuberance of adoring invocations, as his fortress, and his buckler, and the horn of his salvation, and his high tower. The same psalm says…
669 wordsSECTION 164The Shield Of Faith
They have contrivances in mills that they call 'automatic sprinklers.' When the fire touches them it melts away a covering, and a gas is set free that puts the fire out. And if we let in the thought of God, it will extinguish any flame. 'The sun puts out the fire in our grates,' the old women say. Let God's sun shine i…
588 wordsSECTION 165'The Helmet Of Salvation'
'Take the helmet of salvation.'--Eph. vi. 17. We may, perhaps, trace a certain progress in the enumeration of the various pieces of the Christian armour in this context. Roughly speaking, they are in three divisions. There are first our graces of truth, righteousness, preparedness, which, though they are all conceived…
665 wordsSECTION 166'The Helmet Of Salvation'
Hence, in Scripture our salvation is presented as past, as present, and as future. As past it is once for all received by initial faith in Christ; and, in view of their faith, Paul has no scruples as to saying to the imperfect Christians whose imperfections he scourges, 'Ye have been saved,' or in building upon that pa…
990 wordsSECTION 167'The Sword Of The Spirit'
The last word to be said is, Live in frequent anticipation of that perfect future. If that anticipation is built on memory of the past and experience of the present, it cannot be too confident. That hope maketh not ashamed. In the region of Christian experience alone the weakest of us has a right to reckon on the futur…
650 wordsSECTION 168'The Sword Of The Spirit'
The early Christian teachers and apostles had no hesitation in taking that sacred name--the word of the Lord--to describe the message which they spoke. One of their earliest prayers when they were left alone was, that with all boldness they might speak Thy word; and throughout the whole of the Acts of the Apostles the …
793 wordsSECTION 169'The Sword Of The Spirit'
We are not to take the rough-and-ready method, which is so common among good people, of identifying this spirit-given sword with the Bible. If for no other reason, yet because it is the Spirit which supplies it to the grasp of the Christian soldier, our possession of it is therefore a result of the action of that Spiri…
717 wordsSECTION 170'The Sword Of The Spirit'
If that engrafted word is ever to become sovereign in our lives, there must be a life-long attempt to bring the tremendous truths as to God's will for human conduct which it plants in our minds into practice, and to bring all our practice under their influence. The motives which it brings to bear on our evils will be p…
376 wordsSECTION 171Peace, Love, And Faith
'Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith.'--Eph. vi. 23. The numerous personal greetings usually found at the close of Paul's letters are entirely absent from this Epistle. All which we have in their place is this entirely general good wish, and the still more general and wider one in the subsequent verse. Ther…
843 wordsSECTION 172Peace, Love, And Faith
Then, remember further that the faith which is the foundation of everything is essentially personal trust reposing upon a person, upon Jesus Christ. You cannot get hold of a man in any other way than by that. The only real bond that binds people together is the personal bond of confidence, manifesting itself in love. A…
680 wordsSECTION 173Peace, Love, And Faith
And so let me remind you further that this faith, the personal outgoing of a man's intellect and will to the personal Saviour revealed in the Scriptures as the sacrifice for our sins, and the life of our spirits, which ought to be continuous and progressive, is the foundation of all strength, blessedness, goodness, in …
700 wordsSECTION 174Peace, Love, And Faith
So then, dear friends, there is a test for your love. We hear a great deal said nowadays, as there has always been a great deal said, about the essence of all religion consisting in love to God; and about men 'rejecting the cumbrous dogmas of the New Testament, and falling back upon the great and simple truths, Thou sh…
737 wordsSECTION 175Peace, Love, And Faith
Self-surrender is peace. It is our wills that trouble us. Disturbance comes, not from without, but from within. When the will bows, when I say, 'Be it then as Thou wilt,' when in faith and love I cease to strive, to murmur, to rebel, to repine, and enter into His loving purposes, then there is peace. Obedience is peac…
251 wordsSECTION 176The Wide Range Of God'S Grace
'Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.'--Eph. vi. 24. In turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to mark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very comprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric. But they sweep …
680 wordsSECTION 177The Wide Range Of God'S Grace
There is also here laid down for us the great principle, as against all narrowness and all externalism, and all so-called ecclesiasticism, that to be joined to Jesus Christ is the one condition which brings a man into the blessed unity of the Church. Now it seems to me that, however they may be to be lamented on other …
680 wordsSECTION 178The Wide Range Of God'S Grace
Surely that is the true test of a living Church. 'When Barnabas came, and saw the grace of God, he was glad.' It was not what he had expected, but he was open to conviction. The Church where he saw it had been very irregularly constituted; it had no orders and no sacraments, and had been set a-going by the spontaneous …
790 wordsSECTION 179The Wide Range Of God'S Grace
It becomes us, too, to further conjoint action in social matters. Thank God we are beginning to stir in that direction in Manchester--not before it was time. And I beseech you professing Christians, of all Evangelical communions, to help in bringing Christian motives and principles to bear on the discussion of social a…
279 wordsSECTION 180The Second Epistle Of Peter
ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. FIRST AND SECOND PETER AND FIRST JOHN PAGE SOJOURNERS OF THE DISPERSION (1 Peter i. 1) 1 BY, THROUGH, UNTO (1 Peter i. 5) 7 SORROWFUL, YET ALWAYS REJOICING (1 Peter i. 6) 17 THE TRUE GOLD AND ITS TESTING (1 Peter i. 7) 27 JOY IN BELIEVING (1 Peter i. 8) 34 CHRIST AND HIS CROS…
273 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.