PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 10
James Hastings · 176,380 words · 181 reading sections
Section 121
Misfortune makes strange associates : and of these lepers one was a Samaritan. Illness, too, will make men think of God who have never thought of Him before : and as our Lord passed along the way He attracted the attention of these poor outcasts. Conscious of their misery, they stood afar off; and yet — even if nothing…
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^ F. Kuegele, Country Sermons, iv. 547. ^ Norman Macleod, in Memoir, ii. 21. 324 INGRATITUDE H If you search the world around, among all choice spices you shall scarcely meet with the frankincense of gratitude. It ought to be as common as the dew-drops that hang upon the hedges in the morning ; but, alas, the world i…
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^ Bishop Montgomery, in The Church Family Newspaper, llth March 1910, p. 202. 326 INGRATITUDE worship, and that is the highest exercise in which our souls can ever hope to engage.^ ^ The greatest contribution that the AngUcan Church has ever made to Christendom is the " Devotions of Bishop Andrewes," and the reason …
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11. The Causes of Ingratitude. 1. One common cause of ingratitude is thoughtlessness. Those nine who did not come back were simply average and ordinary people in this matter : they did not think. They did not impress upon their own minds that they heuceforth owed everything to Christ; that, whatever other people migh…
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3. Men are apt to be thankless, when they do not see their benefactor. When this miracle was wrought upon the lepers, the Worker was out of sight. He had walked towards the village, and they, avoiding the village, were pursuing their way towards Jerusalem. At that moment of awe and blessing they did not see Him. No sha…
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^ I thank God for the removal of sickness ; but I have been able to give thanks for sickness, for health, for light, for darkness, for the hiding of God's face.^ (1) Gratitude is a self-rewarding virtue. — Who can doubt that this man was far happier in his condition of mind, that he felt a more full and ample and insp…
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2. Those nine ungrateful ones did not receive more, they lost even what they had. They did not become leprous again, the gift of bodily health was not withdrawn from them, but they lost their faith and their good conscience. They were now cured, and were free to go to their homes, but they did not carry a joyous heart …
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The context provides us with an answer. We read the next verses and this is what we find : " And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, Lo, there ! Lo, here ! go not away, nor follow after them ; …
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342 THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM (3) Was, then, this all that was necessary ? Not so, and for two reasons. In the first place, the sin of Israel was continually defeating the Divine purpose for it, and Israel itself, in conse- quence, continually falling under the cruel despotism of its heathen neighbours. And in the sec…
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344 THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM forward, beyond all present judgments and present grace, to a final judgment, and a perfected " salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (3) How the final judgment and perfected salvation will come we know not at all ; that the figures in which we speak of them are figures only,…
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Of course, it is possible, in the interests of a theory, to excise such passages from the Gospels, or to explain them away, bu<; why should we wish to do so ? Why should we insist upon interpreting our Lord's words by Jewish apocalypses, which we have no evidence that He ever read, instead of interpreting them by that …
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i. The Kingdom is come. 1. The Kingdom of God was among them. Yes, it was in Bethany yonder. It was to be found in quiet homes, scattered ^ H.tL. Goudge. ' Matthew Arnold, Last Essays. ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 349 among Judaean hills, among peasants and fisherfolk, who broke their daily bread as the bread of sacrament…
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1 in the midst of them." " The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." 1 ^ If we turn to a little-known fact in the life of Michael Faraday, the vision of the ideal Church — the true Kingdom of God — meets us once more. Faraday was an elder in an obscure sect. He was one of a little religious band which met for worshi…
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^ When the Kingdom comes in its greatness, it will fulfil every religion and destroy none, clearing away the imperfect and opening up reaches of goodness not yet imagined, till it has gathered into its bosom whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely. It standeth on the earth as the city of God …
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356 THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM progress is based on the assumption that, while the actual secular course of the world follows ideals and obeys forces that are incon- sistent with the principles of the Kingdom, yet the only hope of the world is that it may be slowly but surely permeated with the ideals of the Kingdom of…
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Kingsley (C), Sermons on National Subjects, 373. Leathes (A. S.), The Kingdom Within, 39. Lewis (F. W.), The Unseen Life, 61. Liddon (H. P.), Present Church Troubles^ 1. McConnell (S. D.), Sons of God, 135. Macleod (D.), Christ and Society, 87. Murray (A.), Within, 13. Murray (W. H.), The Fruits of the Spirit, 3…
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ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 363 ^ If you want to find the Kingdom of God, our Lord would say, you need not expect to read of its advent in the daily papers, or to hear the news in the gossip of the market-place ; its progress will not be reported in Eeuter's telegrams, nor will its shares be quoted on the Stock Exchange: it…
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I. Without Observation. The first thing Christ says here about the Kingdom is that it comes without observation. Its advance is not obvious to the senses and curiosity of men ; it moves onwards and diffuses itself without being perceived and commented on. And the reason for this is, that the Kingdom is in its essence…
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3. This silent coming of whatever shall prove great indeed, true in many regions of human activity, is truest of all in that highest region of all, where human and Divine must work together. " It is the glory of God to conceal a matter." If other momentous births " come not with observation," with pomp and circumstance…
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(3) So has been, and still is, the Kingdom of God among us — from that day, and in all the world — in this land, and at this hour. There are about us the visible structures which enshrine its presence, the outward tokens of God's service, and the loud schemings of men who, under the name of the Church, would serve them…
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372 THE KINGDOM THAT IS WITHIN Abd-ul-Wahab meant to reform Islam by digging for the original foundations. The result was that they now must prop up the house! In India they are apologizing for Mohammed's morals and subjecting the Koran to higher criticism. In Egypt prominent Moslems advocate abolishing the veil. In P…
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0 Thou, that in our bosom's shrine Dost dwell, unknown because divine ! 1 thought to speak, I thought to say, "The light is here," "behold the way," "The voice was thus" and "thus the word," And " thus I saw," and " that I heard," — But from the lips that half essayed The imperfect utterance fell unmade. Unseen, sec…
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Let us realize distinctly and vividly what our true nature is. 1 Alfred S. Dyer. ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 377 Our deepest nature is not animal or fiendish, but Divine ; it there- fore brings with it the obligation to high conduct, and competence for such conduct. " Being then the offspring of God, we ought not. . . ." W…
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^ W. L. Watkinson. ^ Dean Pigou, Odds and Ends, 67. ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 2 1 379 that unfriendly environment 1 It is fine, is it not, to think about it ? How reasonable, how noble, how pure we should be if we had only been lucky enough to drop upon a nice sphere ; but it is the environment that plays us false. What doe…
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* W. L. Walkmson. ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 21 381 swift steamer or lightning express at his disposal would he not be bound to come more quickly than he could ? And so, with the power of Christ as our resource, and His riches in glory as our endowment, we are called upon to undertake what of ourselves we have neither the st…
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3. But now, as we cannot be worse than lost, so our being lost, so far from shutting us out from the Saviour, forms a kind of strange door of entrance into the whole riches of His salvation, — a kind of strange qualification for the Lord, who declares here that they whom He came into the world to seek and to save were …
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3. He comes to seek the lost. ^(1) Christ goes in quest of men. — He had His eye on Zacchaeus when he climbed into the sycomore tree. He knew where the objects of His pity were to be found, and directed His course and shaped His plans that He might meet with them. He did not sit in solemn pomp, did not dwell in quiet …
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That was the Shepherd of the flock; He knew The distant voice of one poor sheep astray; It had forsaken Him, but He was true, And listen'd for its bleating night and day. Lost in a pitfall, yet alive it lay, To breathe the faint sad call that He would know; But now the slighted fold was far away, And no approaching…
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* "W. Robertson Nicoll, Sunday Evening, 38. ' R. J. Drummond, Faith's Certainties, 328. ST. LUKE XIX. lo 393 diseased. When Jesus touched him that day, his conscience began to work, and, with the conscience in perfect health, and the love in him claiming those who had need of him, the publican began to live through a…
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^ Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, i. 376. ' Stopford A Brooke, Sunshine and Shadow, 105 The Impenitent CiTYa Literature. Arnot (W.), The Anchor of the Soul, 326. Black (H.), Edinburgh Sermons, 291. Bright (W.), The Law of Faith, 141. Clayton (J. W.), The Genius of God, 120. Davies (D.), Talks with Men, W…
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They climbed the Eastern slope Which leads from Jordan up to Olivet; And they who earlier dreams could not forget Were flushed with eager hope. They gained the crest, and lo ! The marble temple in the sunset gleamed. And golden light upon its turrets streamed, As on the stainless snow. They shout for joy of heart. …
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(2) The day of visitation is limited. — Jerusalem's day was narrowed up into the short space of three years and a half. After that, God still pleaded with individuals ; but the national cause, as a cause, was gone. Jerusalem's doom was sealed when Christ pronounced those words. Here was His last word to the chosen peo…
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2. The blindness of the Jews was the blindness of moral indifference. For years they had been sinking into cold spiritual indifference, while they were clinging all the more strongly to the outward formalities of religion. And then came their rejection of Christ, which consummated their ruin. They knew what tithes the …
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1 E. L. Hull. 4o6 THE IMPENITENT CITY wind and the storm, it is more often heard in the quiet whisper, speaking lovingly to the conscience. Where are thy moments ? Dost thou let them run Unheeded through time's glass ? Is thy work done ? Hast thou no duties unfulfilled ? Not one That needs completion ? Thou would's…
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2. He wept over the doom of the impenitent city that He loved. He foresaw the hour when- the Roman army would level its walls, destroy its Temple, and scatter its people through all lands ; when the spot that had been so long known as the glory of Judaea should be recognized only by its ruins. And to Christ there must …
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5. And yet, in spite of all, He persisted in His endeavours to reclaim the lost. He threw Himself into the work of rousing and alarming Jerusalem, as though its future might instantly be transformed. From the Mount of Olives He descended straight- way to the Temple, and the last week of His life was spent in daily inte…
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^ In one of Westcott's letters he has this most significant reference to the words of the text : " Of all the changes in the Eevised Version, that in Luke xxi. 19 is the one to which perhaps I look with most hope. We think of our souls as something given us to complete, and not as something given to us to win." It is a…
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Men have I seen, and seen with wonderment, Noble in form, "lift upward and divine," In whom I yet must search, as in a mine, After that soul of theirs, by which they went Alive upon the earth. And I have bent Eegard on many a woman, who gave sign God willed her beautiful, when He drew the line That shaped each float an…
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still hoping, ever and anon, To reach, one eve, the better land. "I wonder whether it is possible," he asks, in writing to a friend, " to grow a little better as one grows older. What do you say ? I rather think so. Will you take the matter into consider- ation for you and for myself ? People seem to me to have lost t…
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2. Selt-possession comes by self-surrender. We never own ourselves till we have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives us back saints to ourselves. Self-control is self-possession. We do not own ourselves as long as it is possible for any weakness in flesh, sense, or spirit to gain * C…
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^ Ruskin Sesame and Lilies ( Works, xviii. 54). ST. LUKE XXI. 19 425 III. The Discipline of the Soul. "In your patience." 1. There is need of patience. See what a fearful campaign is mappecl out for these disciples of His. War and natural convul- sion in the earth; the machinery of civil government arrayed against…
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4. Christ manifested the patience that He recommended. The patience of our Lord is remarkable. Isaiah prophesied of Him : " He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth : and the isles shall wait for his law." Nothing is more wonderful than the serenity of our Lordjn the prosecution of H…
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431 432 IN REMEMBRANCE beginning we read that they brake bread, and " did take their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God." By the very earliest writers outside the New Testament, if not in the New Testament itself, this service is called " the Thanksgiving," the Eucharist. (4) It is a fellowship…
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Let us remember Him (1) for what He has been, (2) for what He has done, and (3) for what He is. I. For what He has Been. 1. First of all, and in its simplest aspect. His memory is the memory of One who lived, among men, a human life like their own, and yet a life such as none else had ever lived before, or has ever …
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ST. LUKE XXII. 19 437 When I muse upon the Blest Who have left me for their rest, When the solitary heart Weeps within itself apart, When all thoughts and longings fail E'en to touch the dark thin veil Hanging motionless to screen That fair place we have not seen; Then I bless the Friend who left, For the tra…
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When I forget Thee, like a sun-parched land Which neither rain nor dew from heaven hath wet, So my soul withers, and I understand Wherefore Thou gavest me this high command Not to forget. When I forget the death which is my life. How weak I am ! how full of fear and fret ! How my heart wavers in a constant strife With…
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^ Those who have seen the Eussian Pilgrims at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem have been impressed with the fervour with which they kiss the marble slab of anointing and other sacred objects connected with the Cross and Passion of our Saviour. So also in the shrines and churches at Moscow hundreds of peasa…
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* H. L. Goudge, The Holy EuchaHst, 14. ' Stopford A. Brooke, Sunshine and Shadow, 214, 444 IN REMEMBRANCE III. For what He Is. 1, The mode of remembrance appointed by our Lord reminds us that it is to the same kind of personal connexion with Him as the first disciples enjoyed that we are invited. We have the same …
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^ It is an ancient and abiding thought that the visible world is the shadow of the invisible, and everything which it contains has its eternal counterpart. This thought runs all through the Holy Scriptures. It finds its highest expression in the teaching of our Blessed Lord. In His eyes earth was a symbol of Heaven, He…
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452 SIFTED AS WHEAT ^ Now, about a week or fortnight after this, I was much followed by this Scripture, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you." And sometimes it would sound so loud within me, yea, and as it were call so strongly after me, that once above all the rest, I turned my head over my shoulder,…
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H. W. Longfellow, The Sifting of Peter, ST. LUKE XXII. 31, 32 455 If The sifting of wheat is a most hard and thorough, but a most necessary, process. The wheat, as it has grown, has become associated with the protecting chaff, which it is necessary should be blown away, and with the foreign substances taken from the …
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There was in Peter in particular one great defect — a large amount of self-confidence, which made him quick at speaking and acting; and self-confidence in the New Testament is always treated in one way, as that which shuts out confidence in God. It is the enemy of faith. Faith is insight, and self-confidence is a blind…
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^ Alas ! we live in the kingdom of the devil db extra ; there- fore we cannot hear or see any good ab extra. But we live in the blessed kingdom of Christ ah intra. There we see, though as in a glass darkly, the exceeding, unutterable riches of the grace and glory of God. Therefore, in the name of the Lord let us break …
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(1) Peter needed special prayer because of the pre-eminent position that he occupied. Those who play the hero on great occasions will at other times act very unworthily. Many men conceal and belie their convictions at the dinner-table, who would boldly proclaim their sentiments from the pulpit or the platform. Standing…
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4. In Peter's case, good came out of evil. The sifting time formed a turning-point in his spiritual history : the sifting process had for its result a second conversion, more thorough than the first — a turning from sin, not merely in general, but in detail: from besetting sins, in better informed if not more fervent r…
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T[ It was remarked by an old minister whom William Peebles used to hear, that the devil is just the believer's fencing-master ; for by trials and temptations he teaches him how to fight himself.^ ^ From the time of which I speak the whole character, current and outlook of my life changed. The Scriptures lighted up. Ch…
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Throughout the Kesurrection records it is always the unex- pected that happens. They are no work of human fancy. Who would have invented a first appearance to Mary Magdalene, and a second to these unknown disciples, of whom one only, Cleopas, is so much as named, while both alike have no other place in the Gospel histo…
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^ Edwaxd Dowden. ) 474 OPEN BIBLE AND BURNING HEART recollection of our desertion of Him, the uncertainty of His forgiveness, and apprehension lest He should hide His face for ever. If this be so, let us not escape from our sadness by- letting our religion slip away from us or by plunging into the cares and pleasure…
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476 OPEN BIBLE AND BURNING HEART events, and reveals a meaning in its darkest catastrophes. But what I am asking you to believe is something much more than this. All this might conceivably be granted by men to whom such a knowledge would bring only a certain degree of mental satis- faction. Even if they found in the h…
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What set their hearts a-burning was not the mere word of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Christ who was behind the word. It was their immediate contact with that personality, and the mysterious outflow of His life upon them, that stirred them as only personality can do, and moved their nature to its very depths. ^ W…
919 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1910); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.