PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 11
James Hastings · 198,579 words · 206 reading sections
Section 61
* W. H. Fitchett Weslev and Ms Century 281. ST. JOHN III. 5 151 them a right spirit, they bear testimony to it as the most indubitable and blessed fact of their life. Let there be no mistake about it ; that penitent men are turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, is one of the best authen…
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ST. JOHN III. 5 153 to the common-place. He has his dwelling among current traditions and rules and interpretations, and he will not look beyond them. How can a man be born again except by recur- rence to some improbable natural method ? And Christ's answer is always the same: You must be born again — not in the lower…
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ST. JOHN III. 5 155 baptism with water was of course symbolical; that is to say, the water itself exercised no spiritual influence, but merely represented to the eye what was invisibly done in the heart. But that which it symbolized was not the life-giving influence of the Holy Spirit, but the washing away of sin from…
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ST. JOHN III. 5 157 slow fires of their sarcasm. I have watched them score it with the keenest infidel blades. I have seen it pilloried and hung in effigy before an admiring crowd. To all of which there is just this to say — and I believe it can be substantiated with vital truth — that of all the Master's doctrines no…
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ST. JOHN III. 5 159 at eJohanna on board the Lynx, he was sent along with a party to assist the Enchantress, which had got ashore. In the subsequent destruction of the vessel there was much confusion. Kicking about the deck, he found some of Spurgeon's sermons. In reading a few sentences casually where the book opened…
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^ It is not any doctrine of development or self-culture, no scheme of ethical practice or social reorganization; but it is ST. JOHN — II 162 A NEW BEGINNING a salvation — a power moving on fallen humanity from above its level to regenerate, and so to save. The whole fabric is absurd, therefore, unless there was some…
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* A FatTier's Letters to his Son, 128. i64 A NEW BEGINNING that tremendous and thrilliDg contrast which he draws between the great Christian pictures in their manifest incompleteness and the early Greek statues with their manifest completeness of beauty and grace ? Many of us have felt the contrast. It would be well …
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^ A man lying drunk was accosted by Dr. Kidd, who asked him what he was and why he was lying there. "Do you not know me, Doctor ? I am ane o' your converts," was the reply. " Very like my handiwork," rejoined the Doctor ; " for if God had converted you, you wouldn't be where you are." ^ (2) Another sign of the reality…
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^ I fear that unworldliness is almost conspicuous by its absence from our Church members to-day. The world and the Church are so interlocked in unholy wedlock that it is scarcely possible to say where the Church ends and where the world begins. There was a time when the world and the Church were widely separated, in th…
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1. The new birth is the commencement of a new life. When the child is born it begins to live. No one can tell what that mysterious power is that we call life. It is something which all the science of the world is unable either to create or to define. Now as life commences in the child at the moment of its birth, so lif…
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(2) Another feature is Happiiuss. — It is easy to recognize the two levels of happiness, and the way in which men pass from the upper and lighter into the profounder and more serious one. Is this man happy whom I see in the first flush of youth, just feeling his new powers, the red blood strong and swift in all his vei…
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After continuing this for some time my heart sank. It seemed to me that I was not only doing no good but perhaps really hardening him and increasing his guilt. One day after dressing his limb and washing my hands, instead of returning to the bedside, I went to the door and stood hesitating a moment with the thought in …
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^ A young girl of twelve years decided to become a Christian. She was one of a large family of children. The new purpose went down into the vitals of her sensitive nature, and became the over-mastering passion. She had less opportunity of schooling than some of the others. But in strong, gripping life-purpose, in menta…
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(6) Goodness. — There is a first and second goodness. Man is born into a garden, as that story runs. Eight impulses, per- ceptions that the good is better and more beautiful than the bad — these are not wanting in the early, the unregenerate life. And yet that life is unregenerate. It must be born again. Those good imp…
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1 R. E. Speer, The Marks of a Man , 160. ' Paul SaLatier, St. Francis of Assist. ' E. C. Trench, Poems, 36. The Amazing Gifi' of Love. t«i Literature. 'Campbell (R. J.), New Theology Sermons^ 81. Clifford (J.), The Secret of Jesus, 85. Curling (E.), TJie Transfiguration, 55. Eadie (J.), The Divine Love, 1. Fairbaim…
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^ For six nights Mr. Moorhouse had preached on this one text. The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. He said, " Beloved friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but I cannot find anything so good as the old one, so we will go back to John iii. 16"; and he preached th…
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4. Let us distribute the text into parts for easier apprehen- sion, and in such a way as seems to us best "for the use of edifying." Dr. Warschauer proceeds in a direct line, taking the thoughts of the verse as they come — (1) God, (2) a loving God, (3) a great Giver, (4) the Gift of the Son, (5) Belief, (6) Eternal 1…
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2. What, then, does the word " God " mean to us ? There is probably no question that goes deeper to the root than this. We are not specially helped, certainly not in our religious life, when we have admitted that there must be a Supreme Power which has created and sustains the visible world. Granted that is so, such a …
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^ The first meaning of the Greek word for world (Jcosmos) is " order." And as all order is more or less beautiful, the second meaning of the term is "ornament." The word is found with this meaning in 1 Peter iii. 3, — " Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or …
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But in the text it is not used with limitation. It is the world of all men, without distinction or exception, that is meant. It is the same world which is called " the whole world " in that other precious little gospel which runs thus : — " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous…
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(1) But any such theory is apart from the supreme fact of revelation. That supreme fact teaches that, the very nature of God being love, His love insistently and persistently goes out to every one of His creatures. If it be asked how can it be possible that a holy God in His omniscience can thus love those who are wron…
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of the patient said softly, but earnestly, "George M , God loves you; be assured of this — God loves i/oit."" """When the hurried visit was over, the young man's sister, coming in, found her patient in a tearful ecstasy not to be described. " What do you think? Mr. Irving says God loves me," cried the dying lad, overw…
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200 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE tion of God injected into it, and see how it sounds. "God so loved the world that he gave his beloved Son to abate his own wrath and to placate himself!" Or, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that he might stop hating it." This is simply suicide by self-contradicti…
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* William Law. 202 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE absolutely true, on the other hand, is the insight which declares, " We love him because he first loved us ! " ^ ^ In the next verse, where the same subject is dealt with, a different expression is employed. There we read, " God sent his Son." But here, where the matter in…
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* H. Rashdall, Doctrine and Devdop^nent, 79. * Ibid. 81. 204 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE His all : " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." ^ ■[f This has always been the Christian religion. There has never been any other Ch…
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Nor is it to be believed that the great movement of the Church of England which has taken place in the last half-century would have been the real and living thing which it has proved to be, if it had not rested upon Christ as the Incarnate Son of God. A 2o6 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE superficial criticism may identify …
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4. Must we not say more and go further than this ? Must we not say that in giving us Jesus Christ, God gave us Himself, just so far as we could receive this culminating gift ? Is it not the fact that in Him we have the Way to God, the Truth about God, and the Life of God lived out among men ? Is it not He who has made …
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1 J. Clifford, The Secret 0/ Jesus, 101. 2 W. Robertson Nicoll, 2'he Lamp of Sacrifice, 251, ST. JOHN — 14 2IO THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE ^ I preach to-day the sacrifice of God. Ride on, ride on, in majesty, In lowly pomp ride on to die, Bow Thy meek head in mortal pain, Then take, 0 God, Thy power and reign. Th…
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The Ex2}ository I'lmes, xx. 301. 212 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE III. The World and Christ. " Whosoever believeth on him." The purpose of God in the gift to the world of His only begotten Son is that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish but have eternal life. For He wills that all men should be saved and come to…
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(1) It is the act of personal trust in Jesus as a living Person, in Jesus as the personal Manifestation of God the Father to the soul of Man. It is not believing this or that about Him — the in- tellectual side of Faith; it is casting ourselves upon Him, the Unseen, as a Eeality, as the Eeality, as the Eeality of God. …
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1 R. F. Horton, The Triumph of the Cross^ 14, 2i6 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE of the pursuer's spear almost pricking his spine — don't you think he would make for the City of Eefuge with some speed ? That is what you have to do. He that believeth, and by trust lays hold of the Hand that holds him up, will never fall ; a…
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1 A. T. Pierson. « J. Clilford, The Secret of Jems, 96. ^ 2i8 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE IV. The Would and God. "Should not perish, but have eternal life." 1. Perishing. — Pardon is not wrung from the Father by the Son. It is from the Father's love that salvation flows. But this love of God to our sinful world does …
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220 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE folded his arms, extended himself in the boat, and awaited with perfect calmness his inevitable fate. In a few moments he was whirled down the Falls and disappeared for ever.^ The scene is terrible enough. But the perishing of a man's body is a light thing in comparison with the perishing…
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222 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE and pride, with all the other evils tliat destroy humanity. Eternal life is when a man, entering upon the path of truth and nobility, renders service to humanity, his body being obedient to every known law of health, his mind entering into fellowship with the highest thoughts of eternity, …
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(3) Purity. — The love of God believed in must mean a life of growing purity. If we may have the Son of God within us ; if He loved us, and gave Himself for us like that ; if He has come like a good shepherd over the hills to find us, and has found us, 1 J. "Warschauer. 2 Coillard of the Zambesi, 162. 224 THE AMAZING…
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1 J. H. Jowett. 2 W. Eobertson Nicoll, The Lamp of Sacrifice, 247. ' James Drummond, Johannine Thouglds, 42. ST. JOHN — 15 !o More Thirst. LITERATURE Banks (L. A.), Christ and His Friends^ 154. Bardsley (J. W.), Illustrative Texts and Texts Illustrated^ 05. Hodges (G.), The Human Nature of the Saints, 2.30. Hop…
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■[[ I think there is something implanted in man's heart, fallen creature as he is, which defies him to be content with anything 1 M. Doda. ST. JOHN IV. 13, 14 231 but God alone. It is a trace of original majesty, which leaves a mark of what he was before the fall. He is always panting for something fresh ; and that …
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ST. JOHN IV. 13, 14 233 Nothing else will. To seek for satisfaction elsewhere is like sailors who in their desperation, when the water-tanks are empty, slake their thirst with the treacherous blue that washes cruelly along the battered sides of their ship. A moment's alleviation is followed by the recurrence, in tenfo…
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1 C. H. Spurgeon. 2 J. H. Jowett. 236 NO MORE THIRST (3) It is a springing fountain. — "The water that I shall give him shalll)ecome in him a springing fountain"; it shall not lie there stagnant, but shall leap like a living thing, up into the sunshine, and flash there, turned into diamonds when the bright rays smile…
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238 NO MORE THIRST passage, but comes out at the farther end into broader, brighter plains and summer lands ; where it flows with a quieter current and with the sunshine reflected on its untroubled surface, into the calm ocean. He has one gift and one life for earth and heaven — Christ and His Spirit, and the life tha…
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ST. JOHN — 16 242 TRUE WORSHIP saint or sinner, worshipper on Mount Zion or worshipper on Mount Grerizim, it is " a gift," a gift of God, a personal relation established between the individual soul and the Divine life-giving source of all. It is a secret between ourselves and God. ** God is a Spirit : and they that w…
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^ God is a Spirit. This relates to the nature of God ; and as a spirit is the most excellent of beings that we have any notions of, God is represented under this character to heighten our thoughts of Him. We indeed know but little of the nature of spirits; the most of our acquaintance with them lies in the consciousnes…
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1 F. W. Robertson. ' John G. Patan, i. 202. ST. JOHN IV. 24 247 enthusiasm. He calls it Eational Eeligion. This also is ignor- ance. The spiritual man bows before Goodness, "The true worshippers worship the Father," " We know what we worship : for salvation is of the Jews," that is, God is intelligible in Christ as L…
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3. Now see how great this truth is. That God is a Spirit comes nearer to the business and the bosoms of men, to our real interests, to our belief in progress, to our feeling of God's Father- hood, to our sense of man's brotherhood, than any other truth. Is there a Church laying down dogmatic terms of salvation ? This r…
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The Lord is in His Holy Place In all things near and far! Shekinah of the snowflake. He, And Glory of the star. And Secret of the April land That stirs the field to flowers. Whose little tabernacles rise To hold Him through the hours. He hides Himself within the love Of those whom we love best; The smiles and ton…
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^ Christ came to bring man's spirit into immediate contact with God's Spirit; to sweep away everything intermediate. In lonely union, face to face, man's spirit and God's Spirit must come together. It is a grand thought ! Let us aspire to this, to greatness, goodness ! So will our spirits mingle with the Spirit of the …
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^ Our worship must conform to our best intellectual concep- tions about God and His will. Our Lord Himself once drew a powerful contrast between the influence of a higher and a lower estimate of God's character on the actions of men. He told His disciples that the time would come when " Whosoever killeth you will think…
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2. The tone in which the words are spoken supplies another element in the picture. Jesus seems to pause after saying, " Ye have seen me, and yet believe not." It is a sorrowful fact, and it is very mysterious. Here are His own people rejecting Him, or at any rate coming to Him in such a wrong fashion that He has to dis…
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^ As to this matter of election, I would to God that some who 1 J. E. Rolterts. 264 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION object to it had as much common sense in this matter as they have in the daily actions of ordinary life. I ask for no higher degree of common sense. Let me assume that a purse has been lost in the street…
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* Louise Cliancller Moullou. 266 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION all ; it is to come to Him with open heart, accepting Him as He claims to be ; it is to meet the eye of a present, living Christ, who knows what is in man, and to say to Him, " I am Thine, Thine most gladly, Thine for evermore." If An Irish boy was asked…
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268 CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF ELECTION full, and are reluctant to part with anything; whereas we are " poor " — destitute of everything that is necessary to appear before God with ; w© are " wretched," being altogether out of harmony with the eternal joys of heaven ; and we are " blind " to our actual condition, to our own…
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3. The certainty of Christ's welcouie. — Every one who will come to Christ is sure of a welcome. That is the emphatic message of the text. The words used by our Lord are the strongest possible. Sweetly familiar as the music of the English version is, it scarcely represents their double emphasis. Literally they read, " …
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1 Lord, dost Thou me invite To sit in white ' At the great Feast which for Thy friends is spread ? I could not be so bold, In raiment poor and old; Eather without Thy gates would stand unfed. Thy messenger mistook My hungry look, As claiming seat at table of the pure; I am too wise to dare My worthless presence…
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I. The Fact — that we need some one to go to. II. The Question — To whom shall we go ? III. The Answer — that only Christ can satisfy our wants, because He alone has " the words of eternal life." We need Some One to go to. 1. St. Peter grasped the situation at once. He saw that they must go to some one. It may be th…
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^ There is more cause for joy than for complaint in the hard / and disagreeable circumstances of life. Browning said, " I count . / life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on." Spell the word V "discipline" with a final g, — " disci pling." We are here to learn Time's lesson for Eternity's business. What does it s…
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(4) We need some one to go to for our ideals. There is a story that a certain eminent painter kept always in his studio a set of precious stones. They cost him the proceeds of many a canvas. But he said he needed them in order to refresh hie 1 Dr. Af^Laren of Manchester, 264. ST. JOHN VI. 68 281 jaded sense of colou…
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^ The modern man lives in a sort of supreme fear of being duped. But when this fear of self-deception goes so far as to get itself built into a sort of shrine and worshipped as Clifford worshipped it, we are at least candidates for commiseration. It is like keeping out of battle for the sake of avoiding wounds. And whe…
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As some most pure and noble face. Seen in the thronged and hurrying street, Sheds o'er the world a sudden grace, A flying odour sweet, Then passing leaves the cheated sense Balked with a phantom excellence. So in our soul, the visions rise Of that fair life we never led; They flash a splendour past our eyes, We …
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* Phillips Brooks, New Starts in Life, 323. 288 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? is not religion. The religious man says, " This is right, and I will do it because God wants me to and I love Him for the great love wherewith He has loved me." The prudent man says, " This is right, and I will do it because it will be best for me."…
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1 W. M. Sinclair, A Young Man's Life, 185. ST. JOHN — 19 290 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? But when we are asked for the foundation of life, we turn to Jesus and say : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life." ^ There are too many witnesses in His favour for us to leave Him. Call the roll of philoso…
922 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.