PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 13
James Hastings · 184,906 words · 190 reading sections
Section 1
&w OF mrn^ JUL 11 1954 s-. ^OGlCALj^ .H35 V. 13 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE THE VALUE OF THIS SERIES FOR PREACHERS AND TEACHERS is evidenced by the following Extracts from Reviews of the first two volumes issued — ISAIAH, and ST. MARK " We are greatly pleased with the volume on ' Isaiah,' and those who do …
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4 POWER FOR WITNESS ministry in Galilee, so the Baptism of the Church was to be preparatory to a world-wide ministry; a ministry not, like His own, creative of a new order, but one of simple testimony ; yet to be fulfilled only in the power of the Spirit of God.1 The text contains three clauses : (1) Ye shall receive…
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*[j There is in our day a marvellous idolatry of talent ; it is a strange and a grievous thing to see how men bow down before genius and success. Draw the distinction sharp and firm between these two things — goodness is one thing, talent another. The Son of Man came, not as a scribe, but as a poor working man. He was …
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Tf Suppose we saw an army sitting down before a granite fort, ■ and they told us that they intended to batter it down ; we might ask them, " How ? " They point to a cannon-ball. Well, there 1 H. P. Liddon. ACTS i. 8 9 is no power in that ; it is heavy, but not more than half a hundred-, or perhaps a hundred-weight…
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Tl " A servant is not greater than his lord ; neither one that is sent greater than he that sent him " (John xiii. 16). The way in which the Master entered upon His ministry is the way in which 1 W. Arthur, The Tongue of Fire, 171. ACTS i. 8 ii the Apostles are to enter upon theirs. We say it with head uncovered, as…
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(2) The gift is both individual and corporate. All the announcements and instructions were delivered to the disciples as a corporate group; and were so received and acted upon. The disciples tarried in the city together, assembled in one place, and this is specified as characteristic among the circumstances under which…
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Tf " Ye shall be my witnesses." Think of all that this word means. What is a witness ? The light we need here is light that we have by our common use of the Anglicized form of this Greek word "martyr." "Ye shall be martyrs." I do not wish to suggest that Jesus meant necessarily that these men would all die for Him. We …
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ii. The Witness of us all. The duty of being witnesses to Christ is not laid on one order of men alone, it is laid upon all. Although unquestionably, in a special degree, the injunction may be held as addressed to the Apostles and to those who bear office in the Church, the humblest 1 G. Campbell Morgan. ACTS & ROM. …
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T[ There has come to you some bit of a call to service, to each a class, or to write a special letter, or speak a word, or take up something needing to be done. And you hesitate. You think that you cannot. You are not fit, you think ; not qualified. The thing to do is to do it. If the call is clear, go ahead. Need is o…
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1 W. A. N. Hall. 22 POWER FOR WITNESS testimony that nothing really worthy of attainment in art, in science, or in the things of the spirit, is to be accomplished without effort.1 So he died for his faith. That is fine. More than the most of us do. But stay. Can you add to that line That he lived for it, too ? It…
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The day chosen was striking and suggestive. Proselytes from various countries were all gathered together with the Jews of Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Weeks. It was Pentecost, the fiftieth day — a week of weeks — since Passover. At Passover a sheaf of ripe barley had been waved in the Temple; at Pente- cost the two l…
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3o WHITSUN DAY new centre, for the eternal glory was embodied in a Person they knew; prayer had a new meaning, for it was through a Name they uttered with familiar affection; faith had received a new basis, for it was in the Christ they had loved and proved. For ten days they waited with their eyes set upon the heaven…
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^[ It is an old Jewish saying that Moses died from the kiss of God. How true it is to say that many people, especially young people, live because of the kiss of the Spirit. One imprint on their young hearts and they give themselves in love to the great God and His Christ. Yes, God's Spirit still comes like the zephyr, …
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With feet of burning brass, When times are dark as night, Thou through the world dost pass, Consuming in our sight Dry trees and withering grass, With dreadful, happy light. * T. Teignmouth Shore. 2 Sartor Rmartus, Bk. ii. ACTS ii. 4 35 0 thou consuming fire, Why should I fear thy flame, Who purpose and desire T…
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Did we dare In our agony of prayer, Ask for more than He has done? When was ever His right hand Over any time or land Stretched as now beneath the sun ? III. Transformed by the Holy Spirit. " They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." The words of the text are significant, and not…
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Who is this man ? Have we not seen him before ? Is it possible that it can be Peter ? We know him of old : he has a good deal of zeal, but little steadiness; he means well, and, when matters are smooth, can serve well; but when difficulties and adversaries rise before him, his moral courage fails. How short a time is i…
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Tf Let us go back a century and a half ago, and compare the condition of things then with the condition of things to-day. In the year 1724 " gin-drinking infected the mass of the population with the violence of an epidemic." It is said that every sixth house in London was a gin-palace. Hogarth's cartoon retains the sig…
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Apostolic Christianity. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.— Acts ii. 42. 1. In these words are set forth the characteristic marks of the new Christian life to which the converts of Pentecost were pledged by their Baptism. The Apostles sta…
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I. The Teaching of the Apostles. 1. " The teaching of the Apostles " was the necessary instru- mentality for bringing the new converts to full discipleship. Their rudimentary faith needed a careful and continuous instruc- tion, an instruction which replaced that which the scribes were in 1 W. Alexander. ACTS & ROM. …
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4. Thus from the beginning, the Church has possessed and depended upon a " teaching ministry " ; and, though in later times the reason of that dependence may seem less evident, and though, for obvious reasons, the functions of the ministry have taken a less exalted character, yet, when we consider that every genera- ti…
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(3) There was also regular, systematic provision made for practical help as it was required. Continuing in the Apostles' fellowship, it is clear that the members of the Church gave freely and willingly " as the Lord had prospered them " for the relief of poor saints, and that a regular distribution of the contributions…
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ACTS ii. 42 57 of Christ, and to bear a character of the utmost gravity. He rehearses the history of that institution, and bases on it some stern and awful censures of the profaneness which marked the Corinthian practice. The " breaking of the bread " was something more than the formal act by which a social festivity …
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1 Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 64. ACTS ii. 42 59 farewell — so that it seemed to them that a meal of wasted hope and broken hearts was indeed never to pass away. Protected from the fickleness and frailties of change, it was itself to become the undying form of that new companionship with the risen Master, by which and in…
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Tf It is said about us Free Churchmen that we think a great deal too much of preaching and a great deal too little of the prayers of the congregation. That is a stock criticism. I am 62 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY bound to say that there is a grain of truth in it, and that there is not, with too many of our congregations,…
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IT Perhaps one of the most striking is presented to us in the history of the famous Warren Hastings. Hastings, when but a boy, conceived a passionate longing to regain for his family the ancient home of his forefathers, Daylesford, which, owing to monetary losses, had passed into the hands of strangers. He was but a po…
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ACTS iv. 12 69 soul from all those propensities to evil which now so strongly pre- dominate in us ; it brings in, in fact, the undoing of all that Adam did. Salvation is the total restoration of man from his fallen estate ; and yet it is something more than that, for God's salva- tion fixes our standing more securely …
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2. The deeper Jewish commentators saw that the words must really apply, not to Israel as a whole, since the nation had morally fallen too low for such high distinction, but to the expected Messiah, its ripe product and its splendid Eepresentative. And accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ, just after His public entry into …
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74 THE SAVING NAME who died, the just for the unjust. If we know this, we know the great fact of Salvation, for it is here. 2. The second fact about sin is its stain. The soul is defiled by it. All sin is a defilement. Your most respectable sin leaves a mark on the soul. The soul is tainted by it as a glass of pure w…
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TJ We are able without confusion to associate faith in the " All-Father " with much of the picturesque and poetic beliefs of the ancient world. They, too, through the flimsy veil of grotesque mythology, looked into the heavens, and believed God to reign there, with power over human destiny, the Arbiter of fate and the …
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1 E. F. Horton. ACTS iv. 12 79 other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." 1 % Swami Vivekananda, the hero of the Chicago parliament of religions, preaches to his fellow-countrymen the sinlessness of man : " The worst lie that you ever told yourself was that you were a sinner or a wicked man.…
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He had no place wherein to lay His Head ; If I am burdened, He was burdened more. The cup I drink He drank of long before; He felt the unuttered anguish which I dread ; He hungered who the hungry thousands fed, And thirsted who the world's refreshment bore. If grief be such a looking-glass as shows Christ's Face and…
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86 FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH to succour all those that suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate." Tj One of the pictures which Tintoret conceived most rapidly and painted with passionate speed is his picture of the martyrdom of St. Stephen. It is in the great Church of St. George at Venice. Entirely ideal, it shares…
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3. Of St. Stephen's exertions in the organization and direction of the public charity we hear nothing; although we may be sure that this was not neglected. We are told, however, that he was "full of faith and power," and that he "did great wonders and miracles among the people." No details are given, but his miracles m…
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yi The Sister knew that the whole place was given over to evil purposes. She knew that no help would be given from inside. In case of violence it would be necessary for her to descend to the streets. She was not afraid, but she was conscious of apprehension and a vague alarm. However many policemen may walk the streets…
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1 Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men. 2 Dante, Purg. xv. 106-114, trans, by Dr. Shadwell. ACTS vii. 59, 60 93 him. So the one dying word has strangely compacted in it authority and submission ; and the other dying word is the word of a simple waiting servant. 2. How was Stephen strengthened for the trial ? What …
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TJ The Kevisers were anticipated in their interpretation by Bishop Cosin, who, in view of perpetuating another characteristic feature of St. Stephen's martyrdom, has addressed his Collect to God the Son. With very rare exceptions (there are three others only in our Prayer Book) Liturgical Collects have always been addr…
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There is none other thing expressed, But long disquiet merged in rest. \ " He fell asleep." Eepose, safety, restoration — these are the ideas of comfort which are held in the expression of the text. Take them, and rejoice in the majestic hopes which they inspire. Christ has died. He, dying, drew the sting from death ;…
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1 N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 79. ioo FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH Stoned to his death by those for whom His soul's last prayer was sped Unto his God, "Avert the doom That gathers o'er their head " ; And the stones that bruised him and struck him down Shone dazzling gems in his victor's crown ; And as his spi…
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(1) First of all it is a crisis in a man's experience. Nothing interests men more than the story of a critical and determining experience in the history of a soul. All the narratives that have ACTS ix. 4 105 deeply affected mankind have turned upon some crisis in spiritual fortunes. The interest of the crisis may hav…
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1 J. Keliuan. ACTS ix. 4 107 thunder-cloud. Conversion, when it is most sudden, has behind it days and even years of passing religious thought, and conscience- pricking, and spirit-striving. It is only when the hands are on the hour that the clock strikes, but through the whole sixty minutes the whole machinery has b…
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2. " It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." In our land we rarely see oxen yoked to the plough. Obedient horses do that work in our fields. But in the lands of the Bible, oxen were employed in the task, and they did not take kindly to it until they were broken in. They were often in rebellious mood, and flung…
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2. The zealot of the Law, all the more a zealot because it can no longer satisfy him, is on his way to persecute the truth for which his soul is longing. There is something terrifying and 1 Maurice Maeterlinck. ii2 WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME? terribly pathetic in the tumult of a soul which draws near the accomplishment…
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palls, Ofttimes in my desert places a miracle befalls. Is it a trick o' the blood, a clearing dot in the brain? Sudden the far-off shower unguessed has filled the choking stream ; Some rift in the grey horizon let through a crimson beam. Once more for me the sky is blue ; I quaff the wine of the air, And taste the fie…
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ACTS ix. 4 117 undergo hardship and death for His sake, He said, " Why persecutest thou Me ? " ^ Why persecutest thou Me ? The enthroned Saviour is bound to every one of His subjects by ties of holy sympathy. Amid the glory of heaven He does not forget their needs. He in the days of feeble flesh Poured out His cries…
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We shall take the subject in two parts — I. The Vision II. The Appeal. I. The Vision. " A vision appeared to Paul in the night ; There was a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him." 1. A vision. The word (opa^a) is used by St. Luke eleven 1 W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, 198. ACTS xvi. 9 123 times in …
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ACTS xvi. 9 125 taught about Jesus, and felt quite safe with Him, and so went about his play on the floor. And the boy's question proved only too prophetic. Quick work was done by the dread disease. And soon she was being laid away by strange hands. It is not difficult to understand that in the sore distress of the t…
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Tj Do you remember De Quincey's dream — how in his dream he saw the great chariot rushing down the vast aisles of a cathedral, past the storied tombs of kings and warriors, on which were the sculptured forms of the mighty dead, and yet upon the pavement in the very track of the chariot was a little child stooping down …
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(Sermons to the Young), xvi. 549 (Garbett). What must I do to be Saved? Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.— Acts xvi. 30, 31. The events recorded in this sixteenth chapter of the Acts are not the only ones which have given a name and a fame in the af…
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4. "He sprang in, and, trembling for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " A moment's consideration is enough to show how little foundation there is for the common assumption that the man was in a great state of anxiety about his soul. He was a heath…
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(2) But this was not sufficient. The physical shock might arrest, but it could not instruct. It might overawe, but it could not inspire. The rumbling and the crash of the earthquake is not the only voice which breaks the midnight silence. There is the voice of prayer and praise, borne aloft to the Throne of Grace from …
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The ancient gods are dead. No Eoman despot sits on heaven's throne, Dispensing favours by his will alone; Sends some to heaven and some to lowest hell, In unprogressive woe or bliss to dwell ; Demands no horrid sacrifice of blood, Nor nails his victims to the cruel wood In others' guilty stead. 1 G. S. Barrett 138 W…
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1. Salvation is first a certain deliverance from the depression and dismay which spring from our knowledge and fear of the evil we have done ; it is a certain relief from the shame which paralyses hopeful endeavour, and from the ignorant and guilty dread which makes the thought of God a burden and not an inspiration. T…
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1 J. B. Lightfoot. 142 WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? Salvation is character. The perfection of character and the work of salvation include the training of every power and affection to the standard of the perfect man ; the rising up on all sides of our being and life to Him who is the head. Tf In his book on Darkest En…
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Ti " Sirs," cried the Philippian jailor, " what must I do to be saved ? " It had been not unnatural to say, " First of all, let us out of prison. Play the man, run the risk, keep a higher law than you break, obey a holier duty than this low one, and bear the penalty. Act, do ! " But instead, the evangelists begin deepe…
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■ff A little girl had asked her father what faith meant, and he had told her to wait for his answer. One day he was doing something in a cellar, the entrance to which was a trap-door in a passage. The child called out to him, " May I come down to you, father ? " " Yes," he said. The little girl was going to descend, wh…
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3. How does our trust save us ? Our trust does not save us, it makes a way for Christ to save us. We commit and surrender ourselves to Him to be saved in His own way. But from the office it fills, the part it acts, and the results it produces, trust evidently includes some other element. Especially it includes the elem…
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3. No man of ordinary taste and culture could stand in thei midst of its glories without a feeling of aesthetic enthusiasm. Yet St. Paul was moved only by an intense pity and indignation. There was the Parthenon, beautified by the skill of Phidias and i54 AN UNKNOWN GOD Praxiteles ; there the Areopagus, crowned with …
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Tf As you look out over the heathen world with its lords many and gods many, and see working in every form of faith the same religious aspirations, producing in varying measure indeed, but yet everywhere, to some extent, the same civilizing and moralizing effects — are you perhaps sometimes tempted to pronounce it enou…
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Tj You can feel the sort of pessimism and scepticism which is round about us, in the very literature of the land. One man said the other day, that the poets who used to sing the Divine hope into the heart of man are singing agnosticism, pessimism, scepticism. John Davidson writes — Sunset and sunrise came, The season…
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O ye who seek to solve the knot, Ye live in God, yet know Him not; Ye sit upon the river's brink, Yet crave in vain a drop to drink; Ye dwell beside a countless store, Yet perish hungry at the door. The revelation of God in nature is that of an omnipresent, all- embracing, all-working Power, an Infinite Eeason which i…
1,069 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.