PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 11
James Hastings · 198,579 words · 206 reading sections
Section 121
^ C. C. Albertson, College SermonSy 45. ' J. Laidlaw, StHdi€s in ike Parables, 339. 292 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? brief record of our Lord's teaching, contained in the four Gospels, we have it twenty-five times. In St. John's Gospel alone it occurs seventeen times. In this very chapter we read it five times over. No doubt…
995 wordsSECTION 122Section 122
* J. Tulloch, Sundays at Balmoral, 94. 294 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? are in His Gospel, and they must impress us with their absolute adequacy. ^ Surprise at first, and afterwards a sense of adequacy, are awakened by a study of the fact of Christ. Then follows in our minds the tribute we instinctively pay to greatness, to…
1,047 wordsSECTION 123Section 123
^ Wife murder was also considered quite legitimate. In one of our inland villages dwelt a young couple, happy in every respect except that they had no children. The man, being a Heathen, resolved to take home another wife, a widow with two children. This was naturally opposed by his young wife. And, without the slighte…
903 wordsSECTION 124Section 124
3. This, then, is the teaching of Christ in relation to the individual soul. But if that were all, more than half of our deepest interests would be left out. More than half of human life would be unappealed to. The expansion of the soul in love would not only be unsecured, it would even be injured. If that were the who…
912 wordsSECTION 125Section 125
304 THE WILL TO KNOW man will do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God." 2. "If any man willeth to do ... he shall know." The quality of our perceptions is to be determined by the character of our wills. If we look after our moral wills our spiritual eyes will attend to themselves. Our visions …
1,077 wordsSECTION 126Section 126
^ Men say that when they know they will do ; Jesus says that when they do they will know. He does not promise to manifest Himself to the man who dreams or debates, but to him who keeps his commandments. The seeds of truth sprout in the soil of obedience. The words of Jesus in the mind of a disobedient man are no more v…
1,011 wordsSECTION 127Section 127
3. " His will." — If there is one thing more than another which is more personal to the Christian, more singularly his than God's love or God's interest — one thing which is a finer symbol of God's love and interest, it is the knowledge of God's will — the private knowledge of God's will. And this is more personal, jus…
1,004 wordsSECTION 128Section 128
^ An earnest but pessiuiistic priest was talking to tlie Bishop about the state of his parish, and was specially troubled by the small success of his efforts to help the younger farm-lads lodging at the various homesteads. "For example, my Lord," he said, " there is one lad with whom I had taken much trouble, and I hop…
1,003 wordsSECTION 129Section 129
\ When the Cliffords tell us how sinful it is to be Christians on such "insufficient evidence," insufficiency is really the last thing they have in mind. For them the evidence is absolutely sufficient, only it makes the other way. They believe so com- pletely in an antichristian order of the universe that there is nc l…
938 wordsSECTION 130Section 130
I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. * J. Clifford, TJia Dawn of Manhood, 95. ' Marcus Dods. ST. JOHN VII. 17 315 I never spoke with God, Nor visited in heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given.^ (2) Let us remember, however, t…
1,154 wordsSECTION 131Section 131
4. What wonderful light the words of our Lord cast on the true channel through which spiritual knowledge enters man, and how they rebuke the pride and arrogance of that reason which presumes to have the power to master all things. Eeason has its sphere assigned to it by its Maker, and within that sphere it is " a visio…
960 wordsSECTION 132Section 132
U " I wish I had your creed, then I would live your life,'* said a seeker after truth to Pascal, the great French thinker. " Live my life, and you will soon have my creed," was the swift reply. The solution of all difficulties of faith lies in Pascal's answer, which is after all but a variant of Christ's greater saying…
945 wordsSECTION 133Section 133
^ The Life Story of General Booth, 55. 2 Ellen S. Hooper. ' Carlyle, Miscellaneous Essays^ vii. 229. ST. JOHN — 21 Living Water. LiTERATURa Arnot (W.), The Anchor of the Soul, 23. Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 61. Gray (J. A.), Salvation from Start to Finish, 117. Hamilton (J.), Faith in God, 284. H…
909 wordsSECTION 134Section 134
ST. JOHN VII. 37 327 I. Christ's View of Humanity. 1. " If any man thirsC — Christ confronts man's deepest need. He sees humanity "thirsting." No metaphor could be more intense in a dry and thirsty land like Palestine. It fittingly pictures the deepest want of the human soul. (1) It is characteristic of the teachin…
942 wordsSECTION 135Section 135
^ The late Sir James Stephen in a lecture to young men once said that he could put his suggestions in one word — Aspire. That was very good advice. But what should the aspiration be ? ^ ^ On the morning of January 7, 1900, Bishop Creighton,a few days before he died, seemed particularly well. His chaplain, Mr. Percival…
937 wordsSECTION 136Section 136
2. All the cravings after a settled and eternal state, all the longings for purity and fellowship with the Highest, which the Temple services rather quickened than satisfied, Christ says He will satisfy. The Temple service had been to them as a screen on which the shadows of things spiritual were thrown ; but they long…
906 wordsSECTION 137Section 137
11 We all forget that Christ's teaching is not a teaching like that of Moses, of Mohammed, and like all other human teachings, that is, a doctrine of rules to be executed. Christ's teaching is a gospel, that is, a teaching of the good. He who is thirsty, let him go and drink. And so, according to this teaching it is …
1,015 wordsSECTION 138Section 138
1 Bishop J. C. Ryle, The Upper Boom, 117. 336 LIVING WATER and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." By and by part of that seemed to slip its hold, and she would quietly be repeating, " that which I have committed to him." The last few weeks as the ripened old s…
969 wordsSECTION 139Section 139
^ R. M. M'Cheyne, Additional Remains, 308. ST. JOHN — 2 2 S3S LIVING WATER and drink " ; for He directs streams of kindness to every one who comes to Him by means of His new commandment, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another ; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall al…
985 wordsSECTION 140Section 140
Two characteristic ceremonies of this Festival gathered up in expressive symbols the lessons of a Divine sustenance and of a Divine Presence, which remained as the great results of the teaching of the desert, and both of these were treated by Christ as parables of Himself. Each morning water was brought in a golde…
1,002 wordsSECTION 141Section 141
346 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD heart's rest and joy. We are sure that He knew what He was saying and had Divine right to say it : "I am the light of the world." 3. What does Jesus mean? How is He the light of the world ? Let us understand what light is and does. (1) "The light of the world," " the light of life "—the wo…
923 wordsSECTION 142Section 142
* Knox Little, The Light of lAfe^ 4. ' J. H. Jowett, The Silver Lining^ 69. { 348 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD lit up sea or shore. The darkness of the world, in short, is a moral darkness, in which man is often unable to see his true way or choose his own good. He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i' th…
914 wordsSECTION 143Section 143
I. Christ is the Light of the world because He enables men to see what is in the world. II. Christ is the Light of the world because He guides men through the world. 350 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD Hb Enables Men to See. The lights by the altar in the Temple were memorials of the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by ni…
919 wordsSECTION 144Section 144
^ ^ In that famous picture which Holman Hunt has painted of this wonderful scene and utterance in"Hie Saviour's life, there is one fatal blunder, as it appears at least to those who read Jesus with clearest eyes. The Saviour stands in the encu'cling gloom, lamp in hand, through which rays of light stream out upon the d…
969 wordsSECTION 145Section 145
Christ asserts for man his true dignity and his rightful place in the universe of matter and of spirit. There is no single point in respect to which Christ has wrought so complete a revolution as in respect to the dignity and worth of the individual man. He effected this change, not by teaching a new philosophy, but by…
994 wordsSECTION 146Section 146
3. But now, since Jesus has perfectly revealed to us what God is and what man ought to be, He has lighted up the profound abyss which separates man from God. The more His holiness is made evident and clear, the more evident does our own imperfection become; all our virtues pale beside His perfection, as the false glitt…
905 wordsSECTION 147Section 147
/ can the evil growths in humanity be stayed and the good ones be fostered. V ^ I was talking some time ago to a City Missionary, an earnest-hearted woman working in the worst parts of one of our great cities ; and she told me, how, at first, her work made her utterly despairing. There seemed to be nothing she could d…
904 wordsSECTION 148Section 148
1. We have the promise that if we follow faithfully we shall not walk in darkness. This is true in practice of life and its perplexities. Nobody who has not tried it would believe how many difficulties are cleared out of a man's road by the simple act of trying to follow Christ. No doubt there will still remain obscuri…
1,076 wordsSECTION 149Section 149
^ Only he can be a true follower whose life and love are in ^ W. J. Dawson, The Empire of Love, 112. ST. JOHN VIII. 12 363 union with the life and love in Christ. He will not be " light in the Lord " until his will is intermarried with the will of his Lord. Every man who is thus joined to the Lord is one Spirit with…
920 wordsSECTION 150Section 150
* G. Mathcson, MoTuents on (lie Mount, 251. ' Francis Quarles. ST. JOHN VIII. 12 365 ^ That was a true and beautiful word uttered by Mrs. Booth when she was passing home : " The waters are rising, but I am not sinking ! " Death was her minister, floating her forward to glory. " All things are yours . . . death." And …
1,008 wordsSECTION 151Section 151
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, x. (1864) No. 565. Temple (F.), Sermons in Rugby School Chapel, iii. 149. Thomas (J.), Concerning the King, 84. Trench (R. C), Sermons for the Most Part in Ireland, 54. „ Westminster and Other Sermons, 269. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xxiii. (1883) No. 124…
901 wordsSECTION 152Section 152
ST. JOHN VIII. 32, 36 371 is in bondage to it, and needs liberty, even the liberty which I, the Truth, alone am capable of giving him ; which he can receive from no other hands save only from Mine. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed ; otherwise, you are slaves and servants, and such must continue…
923 wordsSECTION 153Section 153
If In the Bay of Naples are several islands famous for their beauty. The sky of infinite depth and purity ; the sea pure as the sky, and rivalling its manifold tints of ever-changing glory ; the landscapes rich with the silver of the olive and the purple of the vine; the atmosphere full of the balm of flowers; and the …
907 wordsSECTION 154Section 154
1[ Ezekiel was once led to a place where, through a hole broken in the wall, there was shown him an inner chamber, on the walls of which were painted the hideous idols of the heathen. And there, in the presence of the foul shapes, stood venerable priests and official dignitaries of Israel, with their censers in their h…
995 wordsSECTION 155Section 155
(3) Civilization has been tried. Civilization does free; in- tellect equalizes. Every step of civilization is a victory over some lower instinct. But civilization contains within itself the elements of a fresh servitude. Man conquers the powers of nature and becomes in turn their slave. The workman is in bondage to the…
933 wordsSECTION 156Section 156
^ " 0 ye hypocrites," said Christ to the Pharisees, " ye can discern the face of the sky ; but can ye not discern the signs of the times ? " At first it seems hard that men should be con- 38o TRUTH AND FREEDOM demned for not having insight enough to discern the signs of the times, that is, to see what were the really…
910 wordsSECTION 157Section 157
382 TRUTH AND FREEDOM for it lies in undeniable potencies of life. The question, " What is truth ? " is satisfactorily answered. Jesus said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life." 4. Christ is " the Truth," and His teaching, accepted by the will and expressed in the life, is the Truth that makes us free. The truth…
987 wordsSECTION 158Section 158
(1) To desire the truth is the beginning. We might almost call it the end as well. The desire, if it is genuine, will inevit- ably teach a man the true road to follow. For the genuine desire to see and hold the truth is bound up with the longing for excellence which our Lord calls the hunger and thirst after righteousn…
1,091 wordsSECTION 159Section 159
So is it with all civilization. It is perfectly possible for us to represent civilization as compared with barbarism, as accepted by mankind, as a great mass of restrictions and prohibitions that have been laid upon human life, so that the freedom of life has been cast aside, and man has entered into a restricted, rest…
1,077 wordsSECTION 160Section 160
^ When I bring a flower out of the darkness and set it in the sun, and let the sunlight come streaming down upon it, and the flower knows the sunlight for which it was made and opens * Phillips Brooks, Addresses, 82. ST. JOHN VIII. 32, 36 389 its fragrance and beauty ; when I take a dark pebble and put it into the st…
925 wordsSECTION 161Section 161
^ " A man," said Epictetus, is free only when " whatever is the will of God is his will too, and whatever is not God's will is * \V. L. Watkinaon, ' John Caird, University Sermons, 208. ST. JOHN VIII. 32, 36 391 not his will." This was a true definition of the highest freedom, provided that acceptance of the will of…
905 wordsSECTION 162Section 162
SO that the word is doubly true and doubly emphatic, the Son, the Son of God, being the Son of man. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." It is all to be attributed to the promise of God's incarnate Son ; there is no other way in which it can be accomplished. TI " Ye shall be free indeed" It is a…
944 wordsSECTION 163Section 163
The important fact is that the New Testament writers were not unconscious of the extraordinary character of this " sinless- ness " with which they credited Christ, or of the marked excep- tion which it formed to the generally normal aspect of His life. It would not be true to say that the Synoptic portraiture of Christ…
922 wordsSECTION 164Section 164
(3) How does the matter stand to-day, as from our modem standpoint we examine the facts ? The most exacting criticism of the documents has not disallowed the Apostolic belief. The New Testament, read in the light of honest criticism, justifies, so far as documents can justify, the Apostolic doctrine of the sinless- nes…
1,010 wordsSECTION 165Section 165
T[ In one constituted like Jesus, to be without the sense of sin * J. H. Snowden, The Basal Beliefs of Christianity, 80. ST. JOHN VIII. 46 403 was to be sinless, to be conscious of no disobedience was to have always obeyed.^ If An artist goes into a building and is troubled by it exceed- ingly; a thousand laymen are…
914 wordsSECTION 166Section 166
^ Scripture is a succession of saintly biographies all upon one type, the penitential. By a sudden transition there springs up one solitary instance of a completely opposite type, which vanishes, and never reappears. But the solitary and insulated unpenitential type makes also a solitary assumption of worth, and the as…
1,059 wordsSECTION 167Section 167
^ It is a false supposition that the ideal of infinite perfection cannot be a guidance for life, and that, looking at it, it is necessary to dismiss it with a motion of the hand, saying that it is useless to me because I can never attain it, or to degrade the ideal to the level on which my weakness wants to stand. To r…
903 wordsSECTION 168Section 168
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : John ix.-xiv., 1. Mortimer (A. G.), Lenten Preaching, 118. Paget (F. E.), Sermons for Special Occasions, 233. Percival (J.), Sermons at Rugby, 21. „ Some Helps for School Life, 226. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xiii. (1867) No. 756 ; xvi. (1870) No. 943; xxix. (18…
928 wordsSECTION 169Section 169
ST. JOHN IX. 4 413 means peace and power. Necessity will then be but the iron band inside the golden crown.^ 2. As Christ's followers, this necessity is ours. — " We must work." Christ associates His disciples with Himself in His Divine enterprise of mercy. They, too, are commissioned to " destroy the works of the de…
950 wordsSECTION 170Section 170
* J. E. McFadyen, The Divine Pursuit, 155. * Mgr. Fenton, in The Life of Cardinal Vaughan^ i. 91. ST. JOHN IX. 4 415 Lord, send us forth among Thy fields to work ! Shall we for words and names contending be, Or lift our garments from the dust we see, And all the noonday heat and burden shirk ? The fields are white …
1,023 wordsSECTION 171Section 171
T[ This image partially finds place in the " Sayings of the Jewish Fathers": E. Tarphon said, "The day is short, and the task is great, and the workmen are sluggish, and the reward is much, and the Master of the house is urgent." 2. The hremty and uncertainty of life. — "The day is short." When another year has gone i…
996 wordsSECTION 172Section 172
^ When he was urged to desist and take rest his favourite expression was, " No, I will never be a loafer. If there are no meetings to be addressed, I will return to my work in Australia and the Islands." " You tell me I am working too hard," he would say, " but my time to work for Jesus cannot be long now. I only wish …
1,019 wordsSECTION 173Section 173
^ The greatest of English moralists felt this so strongly, that on the dial of his watch — ready to catch his eye whenever he looked at it — he had these words engraved in their original tongue — " For the night cometh." He thought it fit that every time he looked to see how time was going on, he might be reminded of t…
903 wordsSECTION 174Section 174
Magee (W. C), The Gospel and the Age, 155. Mellor (E.), In the Footsteps of Heroes, 172. Moss (R. W.), The Discipline of the Soul, 25. PeaLody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 107. Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 71. Shepard (J. W.), Light and Life, 242. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit…
935 wordsSECTION 175Section 175
things around us; death comes when we get out of touch. Spiritual life is correspondence with Him who is a spirit ; it is trust, it is truth. Every antagonist of God — the world, the flesh, the devil — seeks to break our fellowship with God. Till Satan came, Adam walked with God ; then he hid himself. Jesus comes ST. …
941 wordsSECTION 176Section 176
^ G. H. Morrison * H. M. Gwatkin, in The Interpreter, January, 1912, p. 146. ST. JOHN X. lo 431 4. Life as we see it is manifested in a succession of rising grades. Lowest, there is the vegetable world or plant life, with no volition or consciousness, tied down by invariable laws. Higher, we witness in the animal wo…
1,005 wordsSECTION 177Section 177
(4) Spiritual Life. — The moral life may not be the highest, although it is inseparable from it. However perfect in itself, it may still have its limitations. It may be bounded by time and limited to earth. While it has a due regard for others as having equal rights and mutual duties, it may fail to recognize a Will ab…
1,026 wordsSECTION 178Section 178
^ A few years ago a famous book called attention to a definition of life, given by an eminent man of science, whose attitude towards Christianity can hardly be regarded as friendly ; and then proceeded to make good use of it. Perfect life was defined as perfect correspondence with environment. Working with that definit…
978 wordsSECTION 179Section 179
^ One of the most distinguished men in this country once described in a public address what he called his creed. Hf disclaimed any intention of speaking in the name of religion. " I do not trench," he said, " on the province of spiritual guides." None the less, he was led to sum up his faith in what he called the triun…
1,038 wordsSECTION 180Section 180
Here, then, lies our duty. It is, first and above all, to realize this life, and then to display it. It is our task not merely so to argue that the world shall listen to us when we ask, " Why do you not believe as we do ? " but so to act that the world of its own accord shall ask, " Why cannot we live as you do ? " ^ …
939 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.