PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 15
James Hastings · 196,620 words · 202 reading sections
Section 61
K In our day men sometimes think it good-natured to treat truth and falsehood as at bottom much the same thing; but this cannot be done for long with impunity. In the first age of Christianity it was not so. " Ye have an unction from the Holy One," wrote St. John to the first Christians, " and ye know all things. I hav…
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Or pass from qualities of character to modes of presenting 1 Dante, Paradiso, xiii., tr. by Wright. i CORINTHIANS iv. 5 165 truth, and the attitude towards these. The young are often enamoured of the showy — the showy in religious testimony, the showy in religious teaching. What draws them and holds them is often th…
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If To summer travellers in Norway, ignorant of the imple- ments of the country, there is a frequent cause of curiosity in certain cumbrous constructions of wood, disposed at intervals by the side of the public roads. There they lie, baking and peeling in the hot summer sunshine, never used, yet never removed. What is t…
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^ The publication of the papers (afterwards published under the title of Unto this Last) in the Comhill Magazine raised a storm of indignant protest; even a theological heresy- hunt could not have been more fast and furious. The essays were declared to be "one of the most melancholy spectacles, intellectually speaking,…
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1 "Rabbi" Duncan, in Memoir of John Duncan, 425. 2 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 8 W. A. Gray. For the Feast. «7S Literature. Aitken (W. H. M. H.), The Highway of Holiness, 220. Beeching (H. C), The Bible Doctrine of the Sacraments, 86. Burrell (D. J.), The Gospel of Gladness, 255. Davies (J. LI.), The W…
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i CORINTHIANS v. 7, 8 177 If I remember hearing a friend of mine describe what he him- self once saw in Palestine, and, of all places in Palestine, in Nazareth, and, of all places in Nazareth, in a carpenter's shop there. The carpenter would not allow him to witness the search in the house lest his presence should def…
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i CORINTHIANS v. 7, 8 179 weakens; always the ferment is touching a fresh layer; always the festering eruption breaks out in a new place. And, wherever it goes, there is this same effervescence, this inflation, this over- stepping of old bounds, this swelling exuberance, this irresistible turmoil. Stronger and more vi…
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4. For power to purge out the old leaveu, we must have some participation in Christ, by which there is given to us that new life which conquers evil. In the words immediately preceding the text, the Apostle bases his injunction to purge out the old leaven on the fact that " ye are unleavened." Ideally, in so far as the…
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1. The words carry us back in imagination to the last night of Israel's bondage in the land of Egypt. That was a season of horror and anguish to the Egyptians, for at midnight the first- born of every household was killed by the Angel of the Lord. It was a memorable night to Israel also, though they passed it in perfec…
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And now Christ our Passover is slain and we are asked to determine whether we will use His sacrifice or not. We are not asked to add anything to the efficacy of that sacrifice, but only to avail ourselves of it. Wherever there was faith there was a man in the twilight sprinkling his lintel, and resolved that no solicit…
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III. The Feast. "Wherefore let us keep the feast." 1. "Wherefore," exclaims the Apostle (and remember that " Wherefore " loses its force unless we have appropriated to our- selves the benefit of the Paschal sacrifice), " let us keep the feast." When we know that for us the Paschal blood has been shed, that word "wher…
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The Christian is not only to take the doctrines which concern Christ, to build up his soul with them as the body is built up with food, but he may draw from them the wine of joy and the new wine of delight. It is meet that we rejoice in Christ Jesus. He is the bliss of the saints. Is it not a joy unspeakable and 1 Phi…
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i94 THE BODY FOR GOD The Christian conscience would settle with prompt and per- emptory decision matters which would long perplex and mislead the Christian intellect. Know ye not, he says, " that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost? . . . glorify God, therefore, in your body." l I. The Body. Of all the visible …
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(3) The body is the medium of expression of the soul — There are many faces about this world in which prayer and patience and humility have, by God's grace, wrought a beauty which may be the nearest approach that can be seen in this life to the glory of the Resurrection — the glory that is to be revealed in those who s…
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(5) Kemember also the prospects of the body. The body has its own real share in the hopes and promises that cluster round the name of Jesus. The heathen said — our modern heathen say still — the body will perish like the animals ; what matters it how we treat it ? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Nay, replie…
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1 J. Stalker. 2 A. Mackennal. i CORINTHIANS vi. 19, 20 201 4. The Temple thus possessed and indwelt by God became the sphere of His manifestation to man, and from thence they learned His law and received His blessing through ordinance and sacrifice. And thus it is with " the Temples of the Spirit " even now. They are…
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2. " To glorify " God is to do Him honour, to exalt, to magnify, to praise Him. How can we glorify God in our bodies ? (1) We glorify God in our bodies by a clear, direct recognition that the body is His shrine, His temple. " Now the body," says St. Paul, " is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for th…
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(b) The body is not to be indulged. — Modern civilization addresses an ever more powerful and persuasive appeal to the lower appetites of man. The cravings of the senses are stimulated in many ways, and a wonderful organization of sensual service has been developed to satisfy them. The body is an instrument for making …
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Thus the subject is detachment from the world. There ii mentioned — I COR. — 14 210 SPIRITUAL DETACHMENT I. An Encouragement to Detachment. II. Three Eelationships of life towards which the Detachment may be practised : — 1. Marriage. 2. Sorrowing and Eejoicing. 3. Business. III. A general Direction regarding t…
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T[ There is a little insect that crawls upon the trees, and creeps, in one short day of ours, through all the experiences of life from birth to death. In a short twenty-four hours his life begins, matures and ends — birth, youth, activity, age, decrepitude, all crowded and compressed into these moments that slip away u…
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When I have time, so many things I'll do, To make life happier and more fair For those whose lives are crowded now with care, I'll help to lift them from their low despair When I have time. When I have time, the friend I love so well Shall know no more the weary, toiling days; I'll lead his feet in pleasant paths alwa…
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(2) It should make him concentrate. — He who knows he is in the world for a very little while, who knows it and feels it, is not like a man who is to live here for ever. He strikes for the centre of living. He cares for the principles and not for the 1 E. T. Cook, The Life of Buskin i. 122. i CORINTHIANS vn. 29-31 21…
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(4) It should solemnize him. — It is not so much that the shortness of life makes us prepare for death as that it spreads the feeling of criticalness all through life, and makes each moment 1 J. H. Goodman, The Lordship of Christ, 236. i CORINTHIANS vn. 29-31 219 prepare for the next, makes life prepare for life. Th…
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What, then, does he mean by saying that they who have wives should be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not? What St. Paul is enjoining here is the relative value of the present order of things. Home, joy, sorrow, business — these are …
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Pair vessel hast thou seen with honey filled, Which is no sooner opened, than descend Upon the clammy sweets by bees distilled A troop of flies, quick swarming without end? Yet these when one doth fan away and beat, Such as had lighted with a fearful care On the jar's edge, nor cumbered wings and feet, Lightly they…
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2. The word " world " is an expression which is used in the New Testament Scriptures with several meanings, and therefore needs to be interpreted with the utmost care and discrimination. Sometimes it denotes the whole material universe as created by 1 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 18, 21. I CO…
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1 T. C. Finlayson. 2 S. L. Wilson, Helpful Words for Daily Life, 240. 228 SPIRITUAL DETACHMENT whole world is an arena of education by probation, — at once a weigh-house in which character is tested, and a gymnasium in which character is trained. It furnishes us with a plastic material, the moulding and shaping of wh…
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2. No doubt the world itself will pass away. For that we have the warrant of Scripture, and Science has countersigned the warrant. But this warrant is not to be found here. St. Paul is not predicting a future catastrophe ; he is announcing a present fact. He does not affirm that " the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous …
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(2) Again, this is true with respect to ourselves. — " The fashion of this world passeth away " in us. The feelings we have now are not those which we had in childhood. There has passed away a glory from the earth — the stars, the sun, the moon, the green fields have lost their beauty and significance — nothing remains…
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^f " All things to all men." St. Paul is always in the face of a listening crowd. Every word, therefore, hits ! He uses speech like a rapier, ready and rapid, which is quivering with personal characterization and the heat of the moment. He is aware of every objection that friend or foe can be framing, and he fore- stal…
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24o ADAPTABILITY jealous and passionate champion. He, if any man, might have been expected to pour contempt upon a worthless scruple — to brand, with the sternest note of disapprobation, the forms, whether of life or of thought, which, however unintentionally, did dishonour to the work of the Redeemer. We know how he …
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If The root of all that was peculiar in Mr. Kobertson's character and correspondence lay in the intense sensitiveness which pervaded his whole nature. His senses, his passions, his imagination, his conscience, his spirit, were so delicately wrought, that they thrilled and vibrated to the slightest touch. His great powe…
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Oh, many a shaft at random sent Finds mark the archer little meant ! I no longer wear my heart upon my sleeve, "for daws to peck at." But there is not a conversation, there is not a book I read, there is not a visit I pay, that does not cut deep traces in the " Calais " of my heart.3 (1) At the very outset, it is ess…
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I could stand no longer the spectator of such a scene ; my presence was, I felt, an almost sacrilegious intrusion ; as quietly as possible I went away. But that prayer, or the fragments of it I got, had lifted a load from my mind. Next day I met the worthy old man and gave him a warmer shake of the hand than he had got…
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1 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, i CORINTHIANS ix. 22 249 photographs of pictures (I think Vandyke portraits), and courteously seemed to value my father's opinion about them.1 2. At the root of all efficient evangelization there must lie this same principle of adaptation. We are fishers of men, and the fisherm…
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U If we are to become all things to all men that we may by all means save some, we are to become cultured to the cultured, refined to the refined. But we often work on a principle diametric- ally opposite to that of the Apostle. As a rule, much more pains is taken to adapt the Gospel to the uneducated than to the educa…
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3. This principle of adaptation is the basis of all effective missionary work. It is not so long ago that the idea which people attached to missionary work was that Christian people went out to speak to heathen people ; and they grouped under the phrase " heathen " all sorts of races, nationalities and religions. In po…
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T[ Mozoomdar and his fellow-disciples of the Brahmo-Samaj claim that they can understand and interpret the teachings of Jesus far more accurately than is possible with the occidental mind. Jesus was an Oriental and they are Orientals. They, therefore, can see the truth which He taught as it stood in His own mind. They …
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Tf While St. Paul's heart is on fire his reason is cool ; after all this expenditure of feeling and effort he looks for very partial results. " That I may save some." Not " all " — that were too much to hope. But whether in the Jewish synagogue or on Mars' Hill in Athens ; whether among scholars or the unlettered ; whe…
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1 A. L. Moore, The Message of the Gospel, 31. 2 Le Mercier, Relation, des Hurons (quoted in Parkman, The Jesuits in North A uicrical i. 186). 26o ADAPTABILITY 4. In work among the lowest classes, while we may conform to their wishes, we must be sure that we ourselves fall into no sin, such as the sin of irreverence,…
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1 C. A. E. Moberly, Dulce Domum, 165. 2 W. Stebbing, Three Essays, 10. 262 ADAPTABILITY over all Irish policy, and it was published by order of the House Taking for his text the words " Compel them to enter in," which had been so often employed in justification of persecution, and adopting substantially the reasoning…
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i CORINTHIANS ix. 25 267 H Here is a little kingdom, which we shall characterize as the kingdom of merely muscular competition. Men are going to try- muscular force with their fellow-men, — they are going to have a boat race. You and I cannot walk along the river-side and instantly take into our heads the notion that …
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i CORINTHIANS ix. 25 269 such that we shall never keep a straight line of direction — which is the shortest line, and the only one on which we shall " obtain " — unless we know very distinctly where we want to go, and have a good strong will that has learned to say u No ! " when the temptations come. If It is not eno…
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Tf The feeble soul that may be lured to love and service by the promise of reward is unworthy to be enrolled in the regiment of Heaven. We needs must follow with assent the words in which the Saint disclaims with poignant ardour all thought of personal advantage, the desire of Heaven and the fear of Hell being alike bl…
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1 The Greville Memoirs, ii. 140. 2 Charles Murray, Eamevnth, 54. I COR. — 18 274 FOR THE CROWN crown of life ! Your physician examines your body, the healthy workings of which have somehow or other become clogged with disease. He finds out the obstruction, ascertains its character, discovers its root. Then practical…
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The promise of an incorruptible crown is not only for this life but also for the life to come. Here we have the promise of life, that fuller life which men want, " the life of which our veins are scant," even in the fullest tide and heyday of earthly existence. But the promise sets that future over against the present,…
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Age, Pain, and Sorrow dropped the veils they wore, And showed the tender eyes Of angels in disguise, Whose discipline so patiently she bore. The past years brought their harvest rich and fair, While Memory and Love Together fondly wove A golden garland for the silver hair. How could we mourn like those who are be…
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T[ When man thus considers the wealth and the marvellous sublimity of the Divine nature, and all the manifold gifts which He grants and offers to His creatures, amazement is stirred up in his spirit at the sight of so manifold a wealth and majesty ; at the sight of the immense faithfulness of God to all His creatures. …
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^[ When Jehovah asked the question : " Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in all the earth ? " Satan said, " Hast thou not put a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side ? " I am very thankful for Satan's own confession of the security of this servant …
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If Many men are distressing themselves, when they think of their trials, by imagining that they must have done something wrong, or God never could have sent such afflictions to them personally or to their household. That is a mistake. There are trials that are simply tests, not punishments ; trials of faith and patienc…
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1 J. Kelman, Honour towards God, 57. * Browning. 292 TRUST IN GOD AND DO THE RIGHT constitution, to our circumstances, to our body, to our mind ; and this sense of adaptation or proportion will of itself be an immense strength to us. It gives such dignity to affliction, and establishes at once a limit beyond which it…
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294 TRUST IN GOD AND DO THE RIGHT work even in this solitude, as in Cromwell's case. I remember, too, a line of Goethe's, in which he says : Talent forms itself in solitude, Character in the storms of life. But I believe both your positions are true. The soul collects its mightiest forces by being thrown in upon its…
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2. God is said here to make the temptation as well as the way of escape. Nor is this without a purpose. He knows precisely the strength we need, because He has prepared the 1 F. de W. Luslrington, Sermons to Young Boys, 24. i CORINTHIANS x. 13 297 occasion on which we shall be called to use it. It will never fail th…
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T| In passing through the " Inferno," Dante's spiritual guide would not allow him to stand still for a moment. TI " What ! " a wayward youth might perhaps answer, incredu- lously ; " no one ever gets wiser by doing wrong ? Shall I not know the world best by trying the wrong of it, and repenting ? 1 Ruskin, Time and T…
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(4) There is the way of submission and resistance. It is all summed up in that word of St. James : " Submit yourselves therefore unto God, but resist the devil." That is the way of submission and resistance, and it is the secret of victory in the 1 J. D. Jones. 2 W. V. Robinson. • Edwavdes, A Year on the Punjab Fr…
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The Corinthians were in a practical difficulty. Social life had been upheaved by the action of Christianity. Like the shuddering of the sunny, peaceful plains of Campania from the fierce shock of the insurgent fires of Vesuvius, the whole social fabric, wherever Christ's hand had touched it, was in a state of convulsiv…
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2. Now Christianity is not a sum of isolated observances. It is the hallowing of all human interests and occupations alike. Worship is a very small fragment of devotion. The Christian does not offer to God part of his life or of his endowments in order that he may be at liberty to use the rest according to his own capr…
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3io MAN'S CHIEF END it's anything it is serving ourselves, not God. And yet we are impudent enough to call our beggings and chauntings "Divine service": we say, "Divine service will be ' performed ' " (that's our word — the form of it gone through) "at so-and-so o'clock." Alas! unless we perform Divine service in ever…
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* J. W. Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, i. 339. 3i2 MAN'S CHIEF END place in the hard, dusty paths of earthly toil and struggle. We must get them off the tables of stone and have them written on the walls of our own hearts. We must bring the Golden Eule down from its bright setting in the teaching of our Lord and g…
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If Brownlow North has told us that it was about eleven months after his awakening at Dallas, when he strongly felt it to be his duty to do some service for the Lord. For two months before this he had shut himself up in his own room, reading the Bible and praying. He then said to himself that he must do something for Go…
911 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.