PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 14
James Hastings · 171,740 words · 177 reading sections
Section 121
2. Acts of prayer. — But the prayerful spirit cannot exist unless special acts of prayer are practised. A passive desire to live in the atmosphere of prayer is dangerous, unless it finds its proper activity in definite exercises of prayer. We shall succeed in maintaining the spirit of constant prayer only when we foste…
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* J. G. Snead-Cox, Life qf Cardinal Vauyhan, i. 11. ROMANS — 21 322 FOR THE BATTLE been achieved for ourselves and others by genuine yet ungranted prayer. Two brothers freely cast their lot With David's royal Son; The cost of conquest counting not, They deem the battle won. Brothers in heart, they hope to gain An…
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ROMANS XII. 21 327 whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." The originality of this ethic is incomparable.^ 2. But there is an extended application to the words of the text. The inspired maxim includes all forms of evil, and there is no form of evil by which we are to allow ourselves to…
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1. Now, with regard to the particular ease in point, St. Paul meant that we are overcome by evil whenever we yield to revenge, or become indifferent to the good and the welfare of those who do us wrong. If we say (or even think), " It's no concern of mine. Let him reap as he has sown, let him look after himself, for to…
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ROMANS XII. 21 331 II. The Powee of Good. " Overcome evil with good " — is this possible and practicable ? Certainly. And no other method of overcoming evil is either possible or practicable. We may suppress it by force, but it remains evil still ; it is not overcome. We may deprive it of its power of action, but it…
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Thou must be true thyself, If thou the true wouldst teach ; Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another's soul wouldst reach. The overflow of heart it needs To give the lips full speech. Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; live tru…
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* Alice Meynell. 336 THE POLEMICS OF CHRISTIANITY things were overwhelmed in a wavy sea of prosperous green and yellow gold. A similar competition is going on between our good and our bad qualities ; it is a rivalry between the wheat and the tares as to which shall get on top and smother the other. What is the true c…
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ROMANS — 22 338 THE POLEMICS OF CHRISTIANITY Nothing responds more infallibly to the secret cry of goodness than the secret cry of goodness that is near. While you are actively good in the invisible, all those who approach you will unconsciously do things that they could not do by the side of any other man. Therein l…
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(3) Evil is not overcome by denunciation. It is surprising how much efficacy is supposed to go with denunciation. Keal, constructive, aggressive good is of far greater significance than eloquent invective ; such invective has its place, but it must be accompanied by active practical effort, or it effects little more th…
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ROMANS XIII. 8 345 ^ Dr. Kidd had a great horror of debt. When parting with a friend whom he did not expect to see for some time, he would exhort him to " Fear God, and keep out of debt." ^ ^ In addition to the heavy losses Lord Shaftesbury had sustained from his steward, he had incurred enormous expenses — amounting…
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* B. Jowett. ROMANS XIII. 8 347 produced that money, not merely in the exact amount, but in the very litile coin in which it had been paid in by the village people when they bought their stamps. Here is an example of honesty, the honesty which is at the root of a noble life, the simple, central honesty about money wi…
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II. MoKAL Debts. "Eender to all their dues." St. Paul does not disdain to urge upon his friends at Eome the duty of common honesty in all matters of indebtedness to the State to which they belonged. He would have them remember that the powers that be are ordained of God, and that they that resist shall receive to the…
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It is no excuse that my conscience did not tell me to do such 352 DEBT and such things. We live up to our conscience, but it is a vastly important truth that we are expected to be enlightening our conscience. Our conscience is not furnished without trouble from ourselves any more than our intellect. "We have to think…
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(2) The Apostle commends hospitality ; the bringing together of our friends to eat and drink and converse, and not only those whose rank is equal to or higher than our own, and who can ask U8 again, but those who are a little depressed in life, and who may be said to correspond to the halt and maimed in the parable of …
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III. The Debt of Love. " Owe no man anything, save to love one another." St. Paul bids us avoid all debt save this. This is a debt which we all owe, which we can never discharge, and which we must always be seeking to pay. 1. It is unavoidable. — Owe nothing, do you say? Paid for all ? You may pay your tradesman for…
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The obligation of love to our neighbour can never be so ful- filled that one comes to an end of it, but every fulfilment brings in its train the obligation of a new and yet higher fulfilment of the duty. It is with charity as with a flame. The more the flame burns and blazes, the more need there is of oil to feed it, a…
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3. The Jews designated by the term "law" the entire Old Testament, less in the literary sense, according to which the " prophets " were added, to complete the idea of the volume, than in the theological sense, all the other books being thus regarded as corollaries of the Mosaic legislation. It may be boldly affirmed th…
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Fear acts chiefly as a restraint. It has checked many in a career of wickedness, and brought a few, perhaps, to the scrupulous observance of some precepts. In all things wliich are thought 1 E. Mellor. ROMANS XIII. lo 367 necessary to avert vengeance, it has often a strong influence, and its effects may even seem gr…
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The Pharisees were active and zealous. The Gospel was an active religion, and Pharisaism was an active religion ; particular virtues were common to both. But the Gospel was an active religion founded upon love, and Pharisaism was an active religion founded upon egoism. In our own day also a conscious obedience to part…
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2. The fulfilling of the law, therefore, is keeping it in its fullest, its deepest, its most spiritual meaning. Every angry feeling, every wanton thought, every uncharitable and suspicious thought, every unfair advantage and dishonest trick, however it may be allowed to pass free by human laws, and however customary in…
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Oh, there are moments in man's mortal years. When for an instant that which long has lain Beyond our reach, is on a sudden found In things of smallest compass, and we hold The unbounded shut in one small minute's space. And worlds within the hollow of our hand, — A world of music in one word of love, A world of …
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^ Love is so comprehensive a grace that it includeth all the rest ; and so is in effect the fulfilling of the whole law. There is a thread of love which runneth through all the particular duties and offices of Christian life, and stringeth them like so many rich pearls into one single chain.^ 4. Love is the fulfilling…
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378 LOVE AND THE LAW He who loves his neighbour also fulfils the commandmenta written in the first table of the law. Because he is God's child and therefore must needs have loved God first, and have thus conformed himself to the obligations of the whole law, he loves his neighbour with a pure heart and true charity. H…
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2. Now, our Lord plainly did not mean His disciples to know when His judgment was to be made manifest, and St. Paul apparently recognized this (1 Thess. v. 2 : " The day of the Lord so Cometh as a thief in the night"), so that his immediate anticipation of the end can never have been part of his faith — never more…
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i. The Night. 1. In the night St. Paul sees a picture of the original spiritual state of those to whom he is writing. From such passages in * Confessions, riii. 2. ROMANS — 25 386 READY FOR THE DAWNING the Epistle as, " ITevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in …
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The Church upon earth is only in the dawn of the day of its full redemption. That day will be perfect when Christ shall appear " without sin unto salvation " ; when He shall come no longer bearing the burden of His cross, but bearing the burden of His glory and of His exceeding great rewards. Then will He consummate th…
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^ Elsewhere this day is more specifically described as " That Day," as " the Last Day," as " the Day of God," and " the Day of the Lord," as " the Day of Christ," the " Day of Eedemption," and " the Day of Judgment." All these expressions are significant, and carry with them meaning of great moment and solemn instructi…
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^ J. A. MacCuUoch. ROMANS XIII. 12 393 evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." St. Paul enumerates these works in three classes. First, indulgence in sensual acts; secondly, indulgence in unholy thoughts and desires ; lastly, indulgence in anything that is not perfectl…
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2. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul explains more fully what he means by the armour of the soldiers of Christ. There he speaks of it as being the armour of truth, of righteous- ness, of faith. But here, when he speaks of the armour of light, ^ Longfellow, Ladder of St. Auoniatine, ■ W. A. L. Taylor. 396 READ…
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instance. The error of the scrupulous was that of asceticism, 399 400 ETERNALLY THE LORD'S not that of legalism; and so the Apostle here counsels mutual forbearance. He condemns everything like intolerance and recrimination. Those who had attained to such breadth of view that they felt no difficulty about eating any…
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Now St. Paul, by this word " unto " — live " unto " the Lord — embodies the relation between these three great elements; not consciously, but all the more instructively because the expression arose unconsciously out of his natural and habitual modes of thought. "Live," he says (and the context shows that he is speaking…
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They said, "The carpenter's son." To me, No dearer thing in the Book I see, For He must have risen with the light, And patiently toiled until the night. He too was weary when evening came. For well He knoweth our mortal frame, And He remembers the weight of dust, So His frail children may sing and trust. We often toil…
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1. " None dieth to himself." The expression is striking, but it is practically meaningless if separated from the rest of the passage. 1 A. E., The Divine Visicm, 73. * W. M. Taylor. ROMANS XIV. 7-9 407 It is the thought which follows that we must emphasize. We die unto the Lord. So then, it results that if we live t…
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1. Let us take first the general fact announced in the words : " To this end Christ died, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the hving." The Apostle is speaking of the duty of all Christians to judge one another charitably, and grounding it on this fact that it is not to himself, but to the Lor…
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^ Speaking of Phillips Brooks in early manhood, his biographer says : To be true to himself, to renounce nothing which he knew to be good and yet bring all things captive to the obedience of Christ, was the problem before him. He hesitated long before he could believe that such a solution was possible. His heart was wi…
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Only the anointed eye Sees in common things, — Gleam of wave, and tint of sky, — Heavenly blossomings. To the hearts where light has birth Nothing can be drear; Budding through the bloom of earth, Heaven is always near.^ 4. It was precisely this that was in St. Paul's view when he affirmed that " none of us liveth…
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Here is a solemn truth, which must have at once lifted the thoughts of the Apostle's Eoman readers above the controversies in which they were engaged, into a higher and serener atmo- sphere. Whatever food they ate or did not eat, whatever days they did or did not observe, one thing was certain — they would have to give…
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420 OUR ACCOUNTABILITY it. Thou whose whole existence hitherto was a chimera and scenic show, at length becomest a reality ; sumptuous Versailles bursts asunder, like a dream, into void Immensity ; Time is done, and all the scaffolding of Time falls wrecked with hideous clangour round thy soul ; the pale Kingdoms yawn…
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' R. W. Dale. 422 OUR ACCOUNTABILITY but it lies -with ourselves to determine whether we will be sober or drunkards, whether we will be gluttonous or temperate. ^ When William Ellery Channing was a very little boy, his schoolmaster said to one of his school-fellows, " Why are you not a good child like William Channi…
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^ It is not that God is going to judge us some day. That is not the awful thing. It is that God knows us now. If I stop an instant and know that God knows me through all these miscon- ceptions and blunders of my brethren, that God knows me — that is the awful thing. The future judgment shall but tell it. It is here, he…
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^ When things go wrong, when others provoke us, then the notion is rer.dy enough at hand that they have sinned, that their account will be heavy ; but we are very slow to comprehend the same thing as it concerns ourselves.^ ^ Do not philosophic doctors tell us that we are unable to discern so much as a tree except by …
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^ Frightful to all men is Death ; from of old named King of Terrors. Our little compact home of an Existence, where we dwelt complaining, yet as in a home, is passing, in dark agonies, into an Unknown of Separation, Foreignness, unconditioned Possibility. The Heathen Emperor asks of his soul : Into what places art thou…
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Robertson (F. W.), The Human Race, 297. Sitterly (C. F.), in Drew Sermons on the Golden Texts for 1910, 157. Tipple (S. A.), The Admiring Guest, 76. Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 137. Westcott (B. F.), Social Aspects of Christianity, 85. Whitefield (G.), in The Great Sermons of the Great Preachers,…
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2. What are the signs by which the citizens of the Kingdom of God are recognized ? Not any uniform which can be laid aside when we enter our secret chamber ; not any watchword which we can learn by an easy tradition ; but a cliaracter which clothes itself in deeds, a creed which is translated into a Hfe. Each citizen o…
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440 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM use great plainness of speech) God does not care in the very least what or when or how we eat or drink, so as we do not damage ourselves or others. And He cannot be made to care, and therefore it cannot be made to matter. ^ To many minds a ceremony or a form comes with all the force of…
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^ Bishop Fraser. * F. W. Robertson, Life and Letters, 427. * Tenuyson, Akbar's Dream. 442 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM ^ The holy Church of the future, the Church of the free and equal, shall bless every progress of the Spirit of truth, and identify itself with the life of humanity ; it shall have neither Pope nor la…
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III. What the Kingdom of God is. " The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 1. In every life there is a holy of holies. It is an intensely secret place. The dearest friend we have on earth cannot enter it. It is our temple of secrets, of things which cannot be told. It is a place whe…
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\ Real righteousness — what is it ? In one word, it is surrender to the will of God. This is the peculiarity of the righteousness which is evangelical. It is from within : it is life : it is God in the soul of man : it is the life of the spirit. It is not a creed learned by heart ; it is not a set of habits acquired ; …
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^ Have you ever spoken to any one who had passed out of storm and turbulence into the possession of Christ's peace ? Ask them what it means, and they will tell you that when Christ givea His peace, He takes the threat out of yesterday, the despondency out of to-day, and the fear out of to-morrow. When God is shut out o…
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If sin be in the heart. If peace be in the heart, The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty, The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of duty, ^ John Bannister Tabb, The Playmates. 452 A DEFINITION OF THE KINGDOM Each living creature tells some new and joyous story, The very trees and stones all catc…
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^ How little difference there is between the scruples of the Jewish Christians and those which vex the Church to-day. The scruples which perplex ordinary Christian people, especially young Christians, to-day are commonly connected either with the ritual or with the ethics of religion. Ought fermented wine to be used in…
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3. Christ did not merely refrain from interfering with free growth Himself, He interposed to defend others when they were interfered with. His most marked action is in behalf of liberty, and He is strongest in rebuke when He checks the attempt of any one to thrust his own character on another, to the destruction of its…
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^ Christian freedom is no trifle, although it may concern a trifle.2 5. Now, if we showed this tolerance after the mind of Christ what effect would it have on the " weak " ? Would not the kindly attention paid to their scruples — the kindly respect evinced for them by those who did not share them — would it not tend t…
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Not for a fuller knowledge of the end Whereto we travel, bruised yet unafraid, Nor that the little healing that we lend Shall be repaid. Not these, 0 Lord. We would not break the bars Thy wisdom sets about us ; we shall climb Unfettered to the secrets of the stars In Thy good time. » T. ti. Selby. ROMANS XV. I 463 …
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^ If you plant a rose tree in the shadow of an oleander, the rose tree will die and the oleander will flourish and fatten on its life. The weak succumbs to the strong. The grip of the strangler is upon all feeble plants in field and forest. The same holds true of animal life. Wolves rend in pieces a wounded member of t…
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This mood hath known all beauty, for it sees O'erwhelmed majesties In these pale forms, and kingly crowns of gold On brows no longer bold, And through the shadowy terrors of their hell The love for which they fell. And how desire which cast them in the deep Called God too from His sleep. Oh, pity, only seer, wh…
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He never heard the lisping and the trembling Of Eden's gracious leaves about his head — His mirth is nothing but the poor dissembling Of a great soul unfed — Oh, bring him where the Eden-leaves are trembling, And give him heavenly bread. As Winter doth her shrivelled branches cover With greenness, knowing spring-tim…
890 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.